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24 Oct 2022
Why reach-based media planning is broken and how to fix it - Karen Nelson-Field
00:28:30
Professor Karen Nelson-Field is Founder and CEO of Amplified Intelligence, and Professor of Media Innovation at The University of Adelaide. Karen is a globally acclaimed researcher in media science, is a regular speaker on the major circuits, including Cannes and SXSW, and has secured research funding from some of the world’s largest advertisers. Her first book, Viral Marketing: the science of sharing, set the record straight on hunting for ‘viral success’. Her most recent book The Attention Economy and How Media Works explains the stark reality of human attention processing in advertising. Karen’s commercial work combines tech and innovative methodological design to look closely at attention metrics in a disrupting digital economy.
How few people actually pay attention to your advert
The variability of time in view vs actual attention based on platform
The technology that allows attention to be measured
How the ESOV and reach based model are broken
The 2.5second rule and how memory is created
How repetition of advertising helps in low attention platforms
How attention has an elasticity based on the platform
The role of creative in attention rich platforms
The importance of adapting your creative based on the attention of the platform
How to approach media planning with attention in mind
Will wearable technology help improve attention measurement
Karen’s response to Byron’s recent comments on attention
What level of push back the focus on attention is getting
What’s coming next for Amplified Intelligence
02 Jan 2025
Reloaded: Rupert Howell co-founder of HHCL on creating the agency of the decade
01:52:44
Uncensored CMO Reloaded. This episode was first published in May 2021.
Rupert Howell is one of the founders of the iconic advertising agency HHCL & Partners. This is a bumper 2 hour episode, but I promise you it's worth it. We spend a lot of time actually talking about new business and the importance of winning pitches and growing customers. We also look at the campaigns that the HHCL created, where the ideas came from that inspired such iconic and effective work. And I think you'll find that quite revealing also how relationships are basically underpinned all of Rupert's success. Enjoy.
We covered so much ground in this bumper 2 hour episode, so here's the list of what we touched upon:
How Rupert made HHCL the best agency of the 90’s
Ruperts New Business Mantra – Honesty. Respect. Trust.
Why saying ‘I don’t know’ and ‘we got it wrong’ is so important
How the agency’s sole focus is Advertising but the Clients sole focus is the business
Why new business should always be separate to the day to day account management
How Rupert became ‘the finest new business director of all time’
How to win a pitch even after you have lost it
Why the pitch process begins with the phone call and only ends when its announced in Campaign
The sole purpose of the pitch is to win and not to solve the clients business problem
Why HHCL had a strike rate of 65% for new business
What the company annual report can tell you for the pitch process
Why you should try and get your customer promoted
How Carling Black Label inspired the most successful Tango Advertising of all time
How Tango destroyed Fanta and forced Coke to withdraw it from the market
How a call from a Surgeon led to the Tango Slap commercial being withdraw from market
Why the ‘4th Emergency Service’ transformed The AA and how the bold idea was sold in
How spending time with an AA team out on a call led to the idea
The importance of winning your internal teams and why they matter as much as your customers
Interrogating the product until ‘it confesses its strength’
Why the harder you practice the luckier you get is just as true for an agency
The real hard yards of the start-up phase that meant not taking a day off in 3 years
How tabloids create controversy and how to respond to it
Why relationships are the secret to really succeeding in business
Turning down offers to sell the agency including a £1million bribe
Why HHCL accepted an offer from Chime with the support from Sir Martin Sorrell
Why so few agencies ever succeed after being acquired by a network
Why HHCL was never the same after Rupert left and why he would never go back
The importance of timing for Founders handing over to the next generation
Dealing with bullies, bribary and negotiating an exit from McCann with a boat & DB9 as consolation
Which celebrities are still speaking to Rupert after he left ITV
Why social media is driven by click bait and negative headlines
Why you should give up the news, except perhaps local news
The Pros and Cons of a British free press
How to get a non-exec role
28 Aug 2024
A Challenger Brand Workout with Gymbox Brand Director Rory McEntee
00:59:34
Regular listeners of the podcast will know how much I love challenger brands, and Gymbox are one of the best examples of a challenger brand really shaping up their industry. Rory McEntee is the Brand and Marketing Director for the challenger Gym brand, and is responsible for some of the most creative campaigns (which have often come along with a side helping of legal letters) that have really put Gymbox on the map.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:45 - Rory’s marketing background 02:27 - Rory’s time at Paddy Power 08:18 - Why Rory joined Gymbox 10:11 - The Gymbox founding story 14:01 - Reframing how people see the gym 16:05 - Using your constraints to your advantage 25:15 - Using every touch point as media 35:11 - Being obsessed with execution 39:27 - Forgiveness not permission with your marketing 46:43 - Dealing with taking risks 48:56 - Why the Gymbox culture is so important 53:44 - How does the business of a challenger gym work
27 Jun 2022
Cannes Uncensored with Tom Goodwin
00:26:27
I've always had a bit of a love, hate relationship with Cannes. It's wonderful that we celebrate creativity with this event, but seeing how the festival rewards a certain type of creativity, particularly short term activation and purpose recently, I'm starting to wonder how effective Cannes Lions winners are in the real world.
So who better to talk to about this than Tom Goodwin, who isn't short of uncensored opinions, to find out what he really thinks of Cannes. Is it just a jolly for the industry? or is it something more?
Dan Ariely: the hidden forces that shape your customers' decisions
01:19:41
In this episode, we deep dive into the irrational world of customer behaviour with legendary behavioural economist Dan Ariely. Dan reveals why we’re all predictably wrong, how tiny invisible cues can radically change price perception, and why effort makes things feel more valuable. We also unpack the real reason people fall for misinformation, how to rebuild trust in broken industries like insurance, and why letting customers choose their own price might just be your smartest move. If you want to understand what truly drives decisions — and how to use that insight to become a better marketer — this one’s unmissable.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:50 - The story of Dan Ariely’s half beard 00:07:53 - Dan’s painful introduction into behavioural science 00:11:46 - Reaction to Jon’s house tragedy 00:15:11 - The hidden truths revealed by social science 00:21:43 - Invisible vs visible motivation 00:29:20 - How Dan would change insurance companies 00:33:30 - Lemonade insurance example 00:35:39 - Why the human brain is a vintage Swiss Army knife 00:38:08 - How context radically changes price perception (the relativity effect) 00:45:01 - Why you should let your customer choose their own price 00:47:11 - Why economists donate the least to charities 00:49:58 - Why effort greatly increases your price perception 01:00:06 - The real cause of misinformation and why it isn’t what you might think 01:12:18 - What will be Dan Ariely’s new book? 01:13:38 - Why we are so afraid of mistakes
29 Mar 2021
Why every CMO needs a crisis to thrive - Damian Symons, Clear M&C Saatchi
00:38:29
Damian Symons is the CEO of Clear M&C Saatchi and author of 'From Choas to Clarity', which we reference a bunch in this conversation. He shares some of the excellent insight gained from this study of over 700 CEO’s and CMO’s into the changing role of the CMO over the past year and more.
What we covered in this episode
How aligned is the CEO and CMO when it comes to business priorities?
Why is the CMO a lot more influential now than a year ago?
How a crisis makes you a lot more connected to your customers and colleagues
How business strategy and the actions required to deliver it get easily disconnected
Why Marketing needs to be much more than just ‘colouring in’
Why CMO’s need to be more accountable for both short and long term investments
How CEO’s become more focussed on the long terms whilst demanding short term action from their CMO
The importance of a clear narrative, clear evidence and a clear short, medium and long term goals
Why successful CMO’s aren’t always the best marketers
How you can make this crisis the best thing that ever happened to you
The failure of CMO’s to nurture talent and why no-one wants the job
The 4 point plan to create clarity from chaos
22 Dec 2021
Tony’s Chocolonely: creating a slave free chocolate brand - Ben Greensmith
01:09:07
Tony's Chocolonely is on a mission to make chocolate free of child-labour and slavery worldwide. I catch up with Lord Chocolonely III, or Ben Greensmith who runs Tony's in the UK about what it's like to run a mission-focused challenger brand in 2021.
About Ben
Ben started his career in food and drink over 20 years ago at IRI and then working for Unilever in a mixture of sales and category management roles. He joined innocent drinks in 2007 and was there for 8 years, holding a number of senior commercial roles and helping build the UK business that was eventually sold to Coca-Cola in 2013 for £0.5 billion. He left in 2015 to join Proper Snacks, most recently holding the position of Chief Operating Officer. Ben has been working for Tony’s Chocolonely since September 2018 as employee number 1 in the UK and is responsible for leading the business in the UK and Ireland. His official job title is Lord Chocolonely iii.
About Tony's
At Tony’s Chocolonely our mission is to make chocolate free of child-labour and slavery; not just our chocolate but all chocolate worldwide. Tony’s has been around for 15 years in our home country, the Netherlands, where we’re now the number 1 brand with a 20% market share. Tony’s launched in the UK in January 2019 and already the 6th biggest chocolate bar brand and the fastest growing.
What we covered in this episode
Being named Lord Chocolonely iii
How the packaging was invented in 15mins
The truth about inequality in the cocoa supply chain
The food unwrapped programme that inspired Tony’s
How Tony prosecuted himself for crimes against chocolate
The lonely battle to end child labour that created Chocolonely
The principles that ensure Tony’s helps make production slave free
Why Tony’s wants the competition to copy them
Challenging the removal of an endorsement by Slave Free Org
The different ways Tony’s are making an impact on living wages
Why Tony’s bars are created with unequal chunks
How Ben convinced Tony’s to let him launch the brand in the UK
Creating a £30m chocolate business in just 3 years
Challenger brand lessons from Tony’s
How Tony’s rate of sale compares to the Chocolate giants
The price per gram of Tony’s and how it compares
Creating headline news with an Advent calendar
SPOILER ALERT: some days may contain extra chocolate
Celebrity endorsement for the calendar
Customer reaction to the missing chocolate on Day 8
Getting on Have I Got News For You
What should be making the news
Results of Uncensored CMO poll asking whether it was a good move
Why Tony’ back a sugar tax and High Sugar, Fat & Salt (HFSS) legislation
Answering the challenge of being responsible for making people fat
How to protect your culture as your business grows
Crazy about chocolate and serious about people
The power of healthy dissatisfaction
How to be more outspoken in 2022
The importance of fitness to create energy for the demands of the job
01 May 2024
Scott Galloway on the end of the brand era, monetising rage and how to create wealth
01:11:19
Scott Galloway is Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and host of the Prof G and Pivot podcasts. In this episode Prof G lives up to the billing as the most uncensored guest on the podcast ever. We cover lots of ground, including his secret to success with Prof G media, what the #1 skill for all marketers should be, why brand is dead and how to build wealth. We recorded this episode as Scott releases his new book The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula For Success, buy on Amazon UK, or US.
00:20:26 - How social media has a negative impact on the world
00:28:45 - Scott Galloway on being late
00:31:14 - The most important skill for a marketer
00:33:32 - The Era of Brand is Dead
00:40:19 - Scott’s new book opening Aurelius quote
00:42:53 - The power of compound interest
00:43:53 - Scott’s advice to young people
00:48:33 - Growing your network grows wealth
00:56:33 - What does the agency of the future look like?
01:03:33 - How to get social media right
01:04:50 - Why big firms should stop certification based hiring
31 May 2023
Managing the worlds largest drinks brands (Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff & more) - Ed Pilkington, CMO Diageo NA
00:45:32
Edward Pilkington is the Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer at Diageo North America, managing a portfolio of the biggest brands in the world, including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Smirnoff and more. If theres anyone that understands how to run marketing for huge brands, it's Ed, and he certainly brings his wealth of experience to this conversation.
26 May 2020
The impact of covid-19 on an ad agency - Ian Millner
00:24:23
Ian Millner is global CEO and co-founder of Iris - one of the most successful independent agencies in the UK. He set the agency up 20 years ago as a partnership with his co-founders and it now boasts some of the world’s most famous brands such as Samsung and Adidas. A genuine multi-disciplinary agency with offices around the World iris have successfully moved with the times.
In this episode we cover
Introduction – how Ian is doing!
Impact – how the virus affected business
Challenges – what have been the biggest challenges this crisis has created for the agency, given the budget cuts
Opportunities – have there been any opportunities arise from the pandemic?
Team – what has been the impact on the team? How should you lead others remotely?
Future – how do we look to the future and stay positive?
The extraordinary cost of being dull - Peter Field and Adam Morgan
00:56:11
Marketing waste is one of the biggest issues facing our industry. So when marketing legends Peter Field and Adam Morgan reached out to me to talk about their new work on the impact of dull advertising on brands, I immediately got them on the podcast.
In this fascinating episode we discuss why you really can’t afford to bore your audience with your ads anymore. What have Adam and Peter learnt over 40 years about the actual cost of dull marketing to businesses, to brands and even to your career?
And for those marketers really hellbent on safety, we discuss the role of danger and a new upcoming mastersclass in how to make the dullest ad ever.
11:01 - Who had the higher ranked Uncensored CMO podcast?
11:45 - How Adam and Peter met
12:26 - The inspiration for the extraordinary cost of dull
15:24 - How are there effective, yet dull campaigns (big budgets is the answer)
19:13 - The System1 Data on the cost of dull
22:41 - Why is advertising so dull?
26:21 - Why are the best marketing organisations trending towards more dull?
27:29 - Making demonstratably unskippable ads
30:55 - The role of danger and constraints in getting to great work
33:05 - The % of B2B ads that are dull and the work The LinkedIn Institute is going to reverse this
35:06 - How dull is approached in different categories
39:01 - Orlando Wood’s current research
41:48 - How will AI affect dullness
45:27 - Which categories are doing a good job of being interesting?
53:57 - Why we need a masterclass for dull
12 Dec 2022
Making iconic high street retailer, Boots, relevant again - Pete Markey, Boots
00:49:02
What does it take to be the CMO of an iconic British high-street retailer, like Boots? Pete Markey shares his valuable wisdom and insights from a career at the very top.
What we covered in this episode:
The difficult second album making Boots Christmas Ad
Rediscovering the joy of Hall & Oates
Why Retailers are so good at making Christmas ads
Making people feel more festive
The importance of escaping reality at Christmas
How Boots landed on Joy as a proposition for Boots
The purpose of making gifting easier and more joyful
Being CMO of a high st retailer during covid & recession
How Boots is using pricing and Advantage card to help customers
Going from ‘good old Boots’ to ‘oh wow Boots’
How Boots is using advertising to reflect the full diversity of society
The importance of telling one persons story well
Wising up and showing older people in a better light
How ‘Summer be ready’ campaign reflected older people as part of the story
The role of purpose and whether it can also deliver profit
Never drink the kool aid on your own purpose
How to tell your brand story internally as well as externally
Making the finance team your best friend
Being shortlisted for Brand of the year in two awards
The power of Boots advantage card as a media channel
Meeting the challenge of Black Friday
Being on the Campaign and Marketing Week Top 100 lists
Impressing the kids with a Hollywood style photoshoot
The secret to being a Top 100 CMO
How the reality of being a CMO is different to the perception
Creating the framework for success and unleashing the talent
The hidden P’s of Politics and Persuasion
The importance of non-marketing skill set for a CMO
Pete’s advice to the aspiring CMO – be curious, get trained & build your network
How Jon got a job that was never advertised
The hidden power of your network
What you should do right now to build your network
How Jon accidentally ended up doing a speech at the wrong event
The 100 day plan to meet 100 people
Pete’s aim to terrify himself via improvised comedy
09 Apr 2025
Rory Sutherland on why marketing is the answer to economic growth
00:51:17
Rory Sutherland returns to the Uncensored CMO podcast, tackling the economic crisis with his signature wit and wisdom. As ever, he offers a refreshingly unconventional perspective on the world’s biggest problems — and marketing’s role in solving them.
In this episode, Rory explores why marketing is more like a casino than a science, how to capitalise on your competitors’ blind spots, and what his unexpected TikTok fame has taught him. Expect laughs, left-field insights, and the kind of brilliantly bizarre anecdotes only Rory can deliver.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 01:03 - Are we looking in the wrong place for growth? 05:33 - Should we slow down our adoption of AI? 09:08 - What marketers and the police have in common 14:40 - Marketing is a casino 17:42 - The most transformative behavioural science insights 19:47 - Take what your competition are doing badly and double down on it 26:20 - Fame is a luck multiplier 32:43 - Why AO add bears to every order 37:19 - How Rory would boost growth in the economy? 47:13 - What has Rory been profoundly wrong about and why
12 Jun 2024
B2B brand building in the era of AI with Jon Lombardo and Peter Weinberg
00:50:04
Listeners of have shown me time and again that you want more B2B content, so in this episode I'm joined again by the Les and Peter of B2B, Jon Lombardo and Peter Weinberg (previously of the LinkedIn B2B Institute). We discuss why B2B marketing departments need to put their focus on building brands rather than talking about product features, why distinctive assets continue to be an essential part of any brand, and we find out what the B2B boys will be doing now they've left LinkedIn.
00:00 - Start 00:49 - The Les and Peter of B2B 02:34 - The biggest B2B revelations 03:52 - Is B2B really different to B2C? 06:28 - Determining buying cycles 08:25 - The brand building opportunity in B2B 20:05 - Why B2B companies need to create fluent devices 30:48 - Why Jon and Peter left LinkedIn to start a new company 33:37 - What does Evidenza do 38:19 - Why AI-powered market research is going to be revolutionary
27 Apr 2020
How Direct Line are marketing during Covid-19 - Mark Evans
00:21:33
Mark Evans is the Managing Director, Marketing & Digital at Direct Line and has been at the company for over 8 years. He's seen some ups and downs but has never seen a challenge such as the Coronavirus. How has the company been impacted, what challenges have they faced and what opportunities can come from this?
What do we cover in this episode?
Introduction – who is Mark Evans and how did he end up in this position
Impact – how has COVID impacted on DLG? It happened on the tail end of a major relaunch of the Direct Line brand
Challenges – what have been the biggest challenges this crisis has created for Direct Line? How are they responding to these?
Opportunities – what opportunities have emerged through this? Are people taking insurance more seriously?
Media – will Direct Line continue to Advertise? Wil the message change?
Team – what has been the impact on the team? How should you lead others remotely?
Future – what's the outlook for the economy and their sector? Short v Long term
Jon Evans Uncensored; what makes a great CMO and other lessons from 150 episodes with guest host Antonia Wade
01:01:32
In this episode, Antonia Wade, CMO of PwC, turns the tables and interviews our usual host, Jon Evans. From tax intern to marketing podcast host, we delve into Jon's journey through entrepreneurial endeavours at Britvic, through to being fired at Lucozade to finding a successful role in B2B at System1. We also discuss lessons Jon has learned from 150 podcast episodes with CMO's, agency creatives, founders and more.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:43 - Jon’s journey from tax to marketing
10:18 - Deciding if you’re more suited to corporate or entrepreneurial life
12:35 - Why Jon got fired at Lucozade
17:15 - Traits of a confident CMO
18:35 - How do you go from tax to research?
25:21 - Why Jon chose Richard Shotton as his first guest
27:10 - Lesson’s we can take from COVID times
30:20 - What makes a great CMO
36:49 - Do emotional ads really work?
39:44 - Favourite campaign that didn’t perform well with System1
41:19 - Is winning a Cannes Lion worth it or not?
44:42 - How important is purpose in advertising?
48:37 - Is AI the saviour of creativity?
52:35 - What has Jon learned about leadership from Uncensored CMO guests?
56:25 - Who would Jon love to have on the podcast?
57:34 - Happy 50th Birthday Jon!
05 Feb 2025
Samsung CMO on Tech Innovation, Flying Ostriches & Doing More with Less - Benjamin Braun
01:12:43
Today Jon sits down with Benjamin Braun, CMO at Samsung Europe, for a fascinating conversation that spans from innovative tech demos to Olympic marketing strategies. Benjamin shares insights on Samsung's role as a 40-year Olympic sponsor, demonstrates the latest AI capabilities in Samsung devices, and discusses how the company balances long-term brand building with short-term sales goals. The conversation takes a personal turn as Benjamin opens up about his experience with dyslexia and how neurodiversity can be a strength in business leadership. From product innovation to marketing effectiveness in the boardroom, this episode offers a glimpse into the mind of one of Europe's leading CMOs and the future of consumer technology.
Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:50 - Why podcasts are now video 00:03:54 - Samsung’s approach to AI products 00:12:21 - Showing Samsung’s AI photo editing features 00:15:20 - The Samsung Galaxy Ring and the health benefits of tech 00:20:35 - The history of Samsung 00:22:47 - How Samsung have innovated in TV’s 00:27:37 - Having products across all price points 00:29:11 - What can marketers learn from being a Police Officer? 00:36:17 - The mini max approach to marketing 00:42:13 - Samsung sponsoring the Olympics 00:49:18 - The best Samsung ads 00:55:56 - How to be an effective CMO in a large organisation 01:00:37 - Put your CFO and CEO in the shoes of the customer 01:07:22 - How Benjamin manages his dyslexia as a CMO
10 Apr 2024
Should’ve gone to Specsavers, how a simple brand idea created a winning vision for the company - Peter Wright & Nicola Wardell
00:57:22
One of my favourite campaigns of all time is "Should've Gone to Specsavers" an idea that has completely transformed the Specsavers business. I speak to their CMO, Peter Wright and the MD of their in house creative team, Nicola Wardell, about how they've taken the idea and produced some of the best advertising on the System1 database.
10:38 - How the “should’ve gone to Specsavers” line was created
14:17 - The world’s longest running straplines
16:17 - The serious case for humour - Tower Block ad
20:18 - Specsavers Vet Ad
21:14 - A cross channel idea
24:29 - Why Specsavers do all creative in house
25:52 - How to attract talent to Guernsey
29:23 - Being the client and the agency
33:56 - Advice for creating an in-house team
34:37 - Wear in vs wear out at Specsavers
43:08 - Creating the culture at Specsavers
50:14 - Launching the audiology business
53:38 - How technology will shape the future of the business
56:07 - Peter and Nicola’s proudest work
11 Apr 2022
How Pip & Nut went from kitchen table to multi-million pound business - Pip Murray, Pip & Nut
00:58:15
Pip Murray is the founder of Pip & Nut, which she launched in 2015 and it's now stocked in over 3,000 stores around the UK. It's the fastest growing nut butter brand around, and it's clear to see why. Pip is full of stories and insights in journey building the company, from humble beginnings in her kitchen and at craft fairs to becoming a staple brand on the shelves of all major supermarkets.
What we covered in this episode:
Why Pip started a nut butter business
From kitchen table to full scale production
The constant trial and error to find the perfect recipe
The confidence that comes from being close to your customer
The importance of the right manufacturing partner and selling them the dream
The challenge of minimum production run when you get started
Pip&Nut’s first customer and the importance of focussing on it
What to do when you have no marketing budget
Bootstrapping and crowdfunding to cover the first couple of years
The pro’s and con’s of starting a business when you are young
How easy it is to convince yourself our of an idea and the power of intelligent naivety
How the biggest doubts come in as you scale and stakes get bigger
The opportunity cost of doing too much
Betting big on brand identity from the start
Inspiration from the B&B studios portfolio and finding the right chemistry
The 3 things every Private Equity company does when they acquire a brand
Finding the right design and why Pip used her name in the brand identity
The challenge and opportunity of a national retailer listing
The trade off between focussed distribution and full scale distribution
Why keeping it tight is so important
What we can learn from the best soft drink launches
The advantage of playing in the niche to begin with
Cash flow challenges of a scale up
Sources of funding for growth and finding the right people to invest
The messy nature of startups and the power of empathy from an experienced investor
What the hardest moment of Pip’s journey taught her
Divesting yourself and learning to delegate to the team
The nerve wracking moment of going on TV for the first time
The importance of B-Corp status and making a sustainable brand
How Pip would define success
The energy you gain from a crisis
Why the best way to learn is doing
Pip’s advice for her 24 year old self
28 Jun 2021
Improving your mental game - Dolvett Quince
00:49:18
Dolvett Quince is a real inspiration to his millions of followers but it’s not his Fitness that captured my attention, although you cant argue with the chiselled good looks and winning smile, but his mindset that really impresses. Having overcome a very troubled childhood Dolvett has not let any excuse stop him from pursuing what he loves and being successful. In this episode he shares the mindset that shaped him and the habits that helped him become successful. Consider this a workout for your mind.
What we covered in this episode:
Dolvett shares his troubled family background and how it was both a gift and a curse
The impact of being told he would never amount to anything
How facing adversity shaped his outlook on life.
The power of forgiveness and how it sets you free.
Dolvett’s plan to become the next 007
Why giving away everything he knows to other trainers led to his success
Why Jeff Bezos no longer packs his own boxes
How do you scale yourself when you hit maximum capacity
Why he added cheats into his diet – leaning to clean and earning the cheat
Overcoming your perception of yourself and why it’s all in your mind
How he could predict who would succeed on The Biggest Loser
The impact of the Pandemic on his Fitness business and how ‘stopping helps you see’
The power of persistence and joining the 1% club of podcasts
What Dolvett is doing next
Can you stay humble and also be successful?
The power of Self Love to help you succeed
What Dolvett would tell to his 21 year old self
The 3 kinds of people in the WWW, those that Wait, Wish & Will
Changing lives ‘one rep at a time’ and other great quotes
The reason for Dolvett’s next book ‘work out the doubt’
The importance of learning from failure and getting back up and going again
Why the most successful people are those that teach others
09 Dec 2024
Rory Sutherland on Jaguar: Madness or Marketing Genius?
00:42:33
The marketing world has been dominated by the recent Jaguar rebrand. It's split opinion in the industry with many criticising the bold new approach with Jaguar's move to electrification. Rory Sutherland may be best positioned to give his thoughts on the change, as a six-time Jaguar owner and behavioural science expert. Rory comes at the rebrand with a more positive spin, suggesting that Jaguar needed to make a bold change in the new wave of electrification to save it's dying brand, and many of the critics have never owned a Jaguar and likely never will. As always, chatting with Rory is a lot of fun with many uncensored opinions.
08 Nov 2022
How entertainment, brand mascots and creative testing delivered a winner for Tourism Australia - Susan Coghill
00:52:01
Susan Coghill is the Marketing Director at Tourism Australia and they've got one of the best performing ads on the System1 database, with their new campaign "G'Day". But this wasn't without taking some risks, such as introducing a new brand mascot, getting high profile stars to feature and producing a 9 minute film.
Why Tourism Australia kept advertising through the pandemic
What System1 learnt about advertising during covid
Winning the only Effie for a travel company during lockdown
Planning ‘Come and say G’day’ a new global campaign to announce Australia is open again
Which distinctive assets are the most Australian
Creating Ruby Roo the new brand mascot
What we can learn from the Entertainment industry
Putting on a show rather than selling
Why it’s important to remember you are not the audience
Making a new version of Men At Work’s ‘Down Under’
The role of celebrities in making the ad more distinctive
Justifying spending $125m on the new campaign
How System1 testing gave confidence to make creative decisions
Getting a 4 Star in the animatic testing
How to reassure your stakeholder the creative will work
Inspiration from the best Christmas adverts
Adapting creative for different markets
The long term plan for Ruby
The decline of fluent devices and why you should use them
Whether Ruby will appear as a character in real life
Why we should all be more like Churchill the dog
Revealing the official countdown of the UK’s best advertisers
13 Mar 2024
How Liquid Death founder, Mike Cessario, created a billion dollar water brand
01:04:34
Today I'm joined by Mike Cessario, the founder and CEO of Liquid Death, a water brand worth $1.4b. With the use of creative brand marketing and punk aesthetic, Mike was able to break into the biggest beverage category in the US and disrupt market dominated by huge brands such as Coke and Pepsi. This is a truly inspirational story on how you can defy the odds, break convention, disrupt a category and do it all on a shoestring budget. If you're a challenger brand, this is a must listen.
Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:10 - Mike’s background 00:06:24 - Mike’s brandy startup 00:10:33 - Navigating regulation 00:12:46 - The benefits of being an outsider distrupting an industry 00:14:57 - Coming up with the idea for Liquid Death 00:19:30 - How to create an innovative brand 00:23:48 - Selling the Liquid Death concept 00:27:08 - Raising money for Liquid Death 00:29:50 - Launching on Amazon 00:30:52 - Generating demand in the early days 00:31:46 - Figuring out distribution networks for the drinks industry 00:35:45 - Why limited budgets helped Liquid Death grow 00:44:11 - Why D2C was pivotal for Liquid Death 00:46:12 - Liquid Death’s unique Super Bowl campaign 00:49:54 - The power of the Liquid Death merch 00:53:00 - Innovation for the future of Liquid Death 00:54:15 - Scaling and exit 00:56:02 - Having famous investors 00:57:29 - Maintaining the challenger spirit 01:01:58 - Mike’s advice to aspiring founders
01 Oct 2021
When Brands Stop Advertising - Dr Nicole Hartnett, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
01:06:23
Nicole is an advertising and media researcher with a particular interest in how to design effective advertising content.
Her expertise spans advertising measurement, management and decision making, distinctive brand assets, brand performance metrics and consumer behaviour. She has published in international journals including the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, and the European Journal of Marketing. Nicole also has extensive experience conducting research projects for the Institute’s sponsors across industries and markets, and regularly presents seminars and workshops on various marketing topics.
What we covered in this episode:
Why Marketers are not good judges of advertising
Marketing departments are not better than a coin toss
Intermediate campaign variables don’t often correlate to sales
Why experience doesn’t make you any better at spotting winners
The importance of distinctive assets
Why characters are a dying art form
Why we all need to be a little more Churchill
The case for not changing the creative
What happens when brands stop advertising
Alcohol, babies, pet food & Pandemics
Why scale matters when you go dark
How your trajectory determines how bad going dark will be
What to do when you manage a portfolio and have to cut spend
The long term consequence of going dark
Why you need a range of distinctive assets to aid memory
The power of blackcurrants as a Ribena distinctive asset
Why the high turnover of brand managers is bad for effectiveness
Why How Brands Grow is the one book every marketer should have
Quiet behind the scenes discipline is what matters when everything changes
The comfort of familiarity when it comes to memory
Building your business around what doesn’t change
Are you measuring what really matters
Organisations suffer from short term memory and short datasets
Learning from success and failures over a long time series
Why the insight department need to start letting go
Winning the Boardroom battle with data
06 May 2021
Why Does The Pedlar Sing? - Paul Feldwick
01:44:18
“the buying of time or space is not the taking out of a hunting license on someone’s private preserve, but it is the renting of a stage on which we may perform” - Howard Gossage
This is just one of the tremendous quotes contained in Paul Feldwick’s intriguingly titled new book ‘Why Does the Pedlar Sing?’ about what creatives really means in Advertising.
Here's what we covered in this episode:
How a Shakespear play inspired the title of the book
A short history of Advertising and the different models used
The importance of Daniel Kahnemans availability and affect heuristic
The Adland myth that entertainment doesn’t sell
Showmanship and why we should all be more like PT Barnum
Why bad research forces you to do one thing whilst actually doing another
Barclaycard and the most honest case history of making an Ad ever written
How Rowan Atchison inspired one of the greatest Ads ever made
Why any process of discovery will involve a lot of trial and error
How PT Barnum created Fame for his Jenny Lind Tour
Why celebrity fame and brand building are far more similar than people care to admit
Why we should be talking about Fame rather than Mental Availability
What we can learn from Strictly Come Dancing
“I had more energy & ingenuity” The importance of energy in creating & sustaining success
The 4 different facets of Fame that are critical for success
Paul’s manifesto for reclaiming Creativity
16 Dec 2019
How I made BrewDog famous - Alex Myers
00:55:07
Alex Myers is founder of Manifest who were recently awarded Agency of the Decade for their work making BrewDog famous. Having worked on BrewDog for most of the past 10 years they helped establish the brand as the UK’s most valuable Beer brand (source BrandZ top 75 UK brands) with virtually no paid for media. Manifest have a clear purpose of creating brands that change the world and put their money where their mouth is.
In this episode:
How Alex started a PR agency with no experience at all
Never mind the bollocks here’s Brewdog was Alex’s opening pitch to work for them
Its not what you stand for its what you stand up for that counts
There is no such thing as a boring brief only boring creative
Finding inspiration from roof tiles and why Alex believes his job is to find out why people get up in the morning
Hello my name is Vladimir. Creating a protest beer to promote what BrewDog believe in.
How to make brave the new safe
How Twitter went from a platform for collaboration to a platform for outrage
Having a public spat with James Watt over Punk AF and not getting credit
Why pitching doesn’t work for brands and why CMO’s need to do their research
Strategy should come from your belief and not a rationale
Manifests vision to create brands that change the world
Why Awards are easy to game but do provide a Sat Nav for CMO’s on who is doing good work
Find out who Alex has a professional crush on
Why doing good and having a positive impact should be synonymous with success
Why the best work comes from making every channel amplify the other
Selling Uncommon, the death of advertising and a British original - Nils Leonard
01:08:33
Nils Leonard is returning to the Uncensored CMO podcast after selling his agency, Uncommon to Havas. We discuss what's next, why he feels it's an investment not an acquisition, what AI means for creativity, culture and more.
Timestamps 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:11 - Selling Uncommon to Havas 00:02:10 - What does partnering with Havas allow them to do? 00:08:22 - How did the team react? 00:09:50 - Expanding to the US 00:12:22 - What’s changing? 00:14:42 - Part 2: What’s new with Uncommon? 00:16:33 - Keeping creativity alive 00:19:20 - Is advertising dead? 00:21:21 - Getting Chat GPT to write a new British Airways Strapline 00:22:49 - Chat GPT writes an ad for British Airways 00:24:46 - What car brand Nils would most like to work on 00:27:01 - The work Uncommon actually did for British Airways 00:28:52 - The importance of advertising internally 00:29:59 - Making 512 different productions for BA 00:32:13 - The power of simplicity 00:34:26 - Making out of home powerful 00:35:22 - What does AI mean for creativity? 00:38:09 - Do CMOs understand the value of creativity? 00:43:58 - Biggest problems we as an industry need to solve 00:47:27 - Demonstrating the value of creativity 00:50:57 - Creating culture in a growing agency 00:55:11 - Power of generosity 00:56:26 - Uncommon’s “faff tax” 00:58:45 - The world’s #1 podcast by Jon Evans 00:59:59 - 2 Uncommon stories 01:02:51 - What what Nils do if he wasn’t running Uncommon?
19 Oct 2021
Mini Episode - 5 Reasons to "Look Out" - Orlando Wood
00:08:20
Here's my mini conversation with Orlando Wood, author of Lemon and Look Out where I ask him about 5 key insights from the new book:
why it’s rude to stare and how the fixed gaze took over art and advertising
whether you can actually build a brand online
the serious case for humour
how emotions capture our attention
the surprising power of the finer details
Listen to my longer conversation with Orlando: https://share.transistor.fm/s/9496c9dd Buy the book: https://ipa.co.uk/knowledge/publications-reports/look-out/
12 Mar 2025
Cadillac’s re-launch of an iconic car brand for a new era
00:45:11
Cadillac is an iconic American brand who are navigating the shift to electrification in the automotive industry and have partnered up with 72andSunny to launch their brand new campaign “Let’s Take the Cadillac. So today, Melissa Grady Dias, CMO of Cadillac, and Marianne Malina, President of 72andSunny join Jon to talk about working with a new agency and launching their first campaign together.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 03:53 - Marianne’s background 06:49 - How to manage a brand like Cadillac 08:34 - How EV’s are changing the industry 13:53 - How do you change your marketing for EVs 15:08 - Insights and inception of “Let’s Take the Cadillac” 17:56 - Developing the “Let’s Take the Cadillac” campaign 21:41 - How to launch a new car 23:39 - Building the campaign for different formats 25:42 - 72andSunny and Cadillac’s first campaign together 28:11 - Challenging the conformity in car advertising 30:48 - Why brand is so important for car purchasing 32:31 - Leading the marketing agenda inside a big org like General Motors 34:24 - In car Cadillac Car-aoke 35:22 - Melissa’s song 36:13 - Coolest feature about Escalade IQ 38:37 - Creating a luxury experience 39:27 - Choosing your car as CMO of Cadillac 40:57 - Creating a premium vehicle 42:53 - Thoughts on the Escalade IQ
24 Aug 2023
Orlando Wood on Advertising
00:47:22
Long time returning guest Orlando Wood is back in the hot seat, talking all things advertising. We look back on his two IPA bestselling books, Lemon and Look Out, to discuss how the two sides of the brain attend to the world differently and how this impacts advertising both on TV and digital. We also discuss some of Orlando's favourite recent adverts and why he likes them.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro 01:32 - Who is Orlando Wood 02:50 - Orlando’s latest work 03:54 - Is Orlando only talking about digital? 05:18 - How to build brands through digital 07:55 - How can advertisers achieve an effective message 10:26 - "moto e azione" 13:35 - Why Ian McGilchrist’s work was so profound for Orlando 14:25 - Right-brain vs left-brain in advertising 21:00 - Trends with left and right brained advertising 22:24 - Is the change in advertising due to social media? 24:13 - The impact of creativity on attention 26:29 - How the choice of media can impact ESOV 27:22 - Is humour making a comeback? 31:32 - Fluent devices 35:13 - Orlando’s favourite ads 39:31 - Jon’s favourite recent ad 43:31 - Orlando’s new course
07 Sep 2021
The Case for Creativity & Cannes Lions - James Hurman
Growing up in a world that didn’t recognise the potential of creativity
How Apple ‘Crazy Ones’ Ad inspired James to pursue Advertising
James’ mission to prove the value of Creativity
Why Jon was supposed to have a career as an Actuary
What the research tells us about the role of Creativity on your success
Why we should define effectiveness in hard commercial terms
Establishing a universal definition with the Creative Effectiveness Ladder
Why understanding your commercial contribution will get you promoted
Why the CMO needs to match the certainty and measurability of their Exec colleagues
How to sell a Gorilla playing drums to your business
We overestimate what we can achieve in 1 year and underestimate what we can achieve in 10
The surprising impact on light buyers even on large brands
Very few people are buying right now so you must focus on creating future demand
The seduction of short term performance metrics
How the failure rate of start-ups warn us about the danger of rely on short term metrics only
Why it takes an average of 7 years to have an ‘over-night success’
The importance of using familiarity when launching a new innovation
Why you shouldn’t ditch the old creative if its good
Part 2 – The Controversy over Cannes
How little time CMO’s actually spend on Advertising
Jon shares the story before his Effie and Cannes Lion wins
How Jon created the name for Uncensored CMO on the beach at Cannes
System1 puts Cannes Lion winners to the test
Why James reacted so strongly to my Campaign article
The importance of recognising the power of Creativity in Advertising
How the emotion being created by Cannes winners has changed
The case for picking a side and standing up for your values
Effectiveness awards look back whilst Creative awards look forward
What the Nike winners tell us about Juries decision making
Aldi Kevin the Carrot and the power of consistency
Whether we can judge creative on a first impression only
The importance of authenticity when it comes to purpose
Wisdom of Crowds and how a Nat Rep samples can be a good guide to effectiveness
The power of Excess Creative Share of Voice in addition to standard ESOV
How the opinion of others impacts on our opinion of a brand
The history of Essity’s Bodyform campaign and how agency & client worked together
Peter Field’s Crisis in Creativity and how we have seen a significant shift to short termism
What the role of Creative Awards should be
Why we all need to work towards a longer term view and apply creativity to the health of our business
02 Mar 2023
Why every marketer should be more pirate - Sam Conniff
01:10:21
In this episode I'm joined by Sam Conniff, the author of Be More Pirate, creator of Uncertainty Experts and stand-up comedian. I speak to Sam about what marketers can learn from the pirates (which is a genuinely interesting look back in time), how we can deal with uncertain times and find out what his best joke is in his new hobby, stand-up comedy.
To win a copy of Sam's book, you just have to guess the number of books he's sold. Send me a message on LinkedIn with your guess.
What we covered:
Why hot pink is the colour of a punk rebellion
Creating a challenger brand pirate operation inside a large soft drink company
The fear and loneliness of the challenger
Why piracy inspired a book about being an entrepreneur
How today is like the golden age of privacy
The forward thinking nature of Piracy that are relevant today
How piracy is a creative rebellion
Pioneering fair pay, equal relationships, insurance scheme, democratic process
How the pirate flag became the worlds first super brand
How ‘surrender or die’ was a very effective strap line
Protecting the pirate brand guidelines
The power of shared values in victory
What do you do with no money
Why values based results never materialised
How fear drives decision making
Navigating yourself off the map
The pirates that work in the Navy
How the pirate code ensured strong accountability
The role of advertising in a post consumer society
The fantasy of the ‘business plan’ compared to lived values
What are you willing to fight for?
The best modern day pirates
How pirates end up becoming the navy
Turning land-fill firehoses into luxury items
The 5 Pirate Principles also known as the 5 ‘Rrrrr’s’
The upheaval that led to becoming an expert on Uncertainty
What you can learn from gang members in prison
How the pandemic was predictable
The truth in most situations is ‘I don’t know’
There is discovery in doubt
The profound impact of increasing your uncertainty tolerance
Sam shares a surprising new talent
18 Oct 2023
The state of D2C and nailing your personal brand; advice from serial entrepreneur Tash Courtenay-Smith
01:02:59
Tash Courtenay Smith is a serial entrepreneur, renowned digital marketing expert, and best-selling author. Starting out as a journalist for the Daily Mail, Tash went on to found Talk to The Press, the Notting Hill Shopping Bag Company, Luminositie and now runs Bolt Digital. Tash also runs D2C Live, an event bringing together the best minds in Direct-To-Consumer. This conversation with a true entrepreneur covers topics such as the state of D2C, building a personal brand and inspiring the next wave of entrepreneurial talent with Biz Kids.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:45 - Starting out in journalism 01:30 - What can marketers learn from journalism? 05:03 - Why become a founder 06:49 - The unforgiving life of a journalist 10:37 - Challenges building and selling a business 16:08 - Advice to new entreprenuers 20:58 - What makes a good business to invest in? 26:03 - The best approaches for scale ups 30:11 - The turbulent D2C market 34:24 - Cutting through the D2C noise 36:00 - Which brands are nailing D2C? 37:00 - Creating a D2C live 40:13 - Writing and finding your own voice 41:17 - Building a personal brand 45:32 - The secret to a successful personal brand 51:17 - Going viral 53:44 - Biz Kids 59:41 - Parting advice
From start up to £10 billion; building the ultimate challenger brand - Rebecca Dibb-Simkin
00:49:46
Rebecca Dibb-Simkin is the Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Octopus Energy Group. Previously at British Gas, Rebecca has helped scale Octopus into an impressive challenger brand with over 50k customers and $10b in revenue.
What we covered in this episode
Responding to a job ad written by Rory Sutherland
From the tax department to marketing
Being rejected on graduate schemes
Poetic job applications
Marketing jargon that needs to be ditched
Why being close to the customer matters
The marketers role in the middle of the spiders web
From energy industry giant to start up
The spontaneous moment that led to Octopus energy
Jon blags a speech on the Internet of things
The surprisingly short distance to the edge of our atmosphere
The cost advantage of green energy
Which energy sources are the cleanest
The tricky of balance of managing variable sources of energy
Advantages of smart energy
How octopus are helping with the cost of living crisis
The red tape holding us back
How to incentivise people to adopt wind power
The 40,000 electric blankets helping people in crisis
From 50,000 customers to 5 million
The secret to seriously rapid growth
The Brewdog question that drives growth
How to handle 80k job applications
Keeping the core management team together
The advantages of an in house agency
Outrageously good customer service with humans
Now the octopus came about
The science behind animals as mascots
In praise of simplicity and products that work
Running the same campaign over and over again
The role of industry awards
23 Feb 2022
The secret to winning the best Super Bowl Ad - Lesya Lysyj, CMO Boston Beer
00:44:36
Jon chats with CMO of Boston Beer, Lesya Lysyj, who has nearly 30 years of marketing experience in the food and beverage industry. Prior to joining Boston Beer, she served as President U.S. (Sales and Marketing) for Welch’s Foods.
The winning Super ad of 2022 and no it wasn’t a set up
Inventing ‘Your cousin from Boston’ and why it works
The power of sticking to the same creative idea
Why we get bored of our own ads before our customer does
The case for releasing a Super Bowl ad early
Creating 2 billion PR impressions from the campaign
The power of Your Cousin From Boston lock up
Taking a big swing with the company dollars
Why a CMO can’t enjoy the Super Bowl when they are advertising
The actual robot dogs that protect Boston Dynamics
How Boston Beer approach testing advertising
Why the idea you like is not always the best idea
Founder Jim and his famous post it notes
How to get payback from a Super Bowl ad
Lesya’s top 3 tips for making a winning Super Bowl ad
Why the CFO is such a fan of System1
How do you top a winning Super Bowl ad
29 Nov 2023
Creativity, Christmas and a Cardiac Crisis - Vicki Maguire, Havas
00:52:36
Vicki Maguire is the Chief Creative Officer at Havas London, responsible for some of the best ads of all time. Notably Asda's Elf ad in 2022 which is the happiest ad we've ever seen at System1, and the British Heart Foundation campaign with Vinnie Jones that literally saved lives.
Timestamps
00:00 - Start 02:41 - Vicki’s background 07:32 - How Vicki got into advertising 11:53 - British Heart Foundation and Vinnie Jones 20:30 - The Asda Elf Ad with Will Ferrell 35:39 - Taika Waititi and Michael Buble campaign 46:13 - Cannes Lions judging
08 Nov 2023
The Mac is back: how Wieden+Kennedy gave McDonald's its swagger
00:47:50
In this episode I'm joined by Tass Tsitsopoulos, Strategy Director, and Brandon Pracht, Managing Director for the McDonald's global advertising team at Wieden+Kennedy. I catch up with them to find out how they brought McDonald's swagger back with some of their most memorable and effective work in recent years, including the "Famous Orders" and "As Featured In" campaigns.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:56 - The difference between UK and US agencies 03:15 - How did Brandon get into advertising 04:52 - What makes the culture special 08:07 - How W+K won the McDonald’s account 11:34 - Importance of connecting with real people 12:52 - What happens after winning the pitch 15:15 - What was the best McDonald's ad? 19:19 - The "Famous Orders" campaign 23:46 - The impact of the campaign 27:00 - The financial results 27:49 - Investing in long term having short term effects 29:05 - The “As Featured In” campaign 31:09 - Building fame 36:03 - How to thrive with a client like McDonald's 39:02 - What happens when things don’t do well 41:44 - Advice for clients wanting to make great work
07 Jun 2023
A marketers guide to a squiggly career - Helen Tupper, Amazing If
00:55:57
Work is fundamentally important to the quality of our lives and we are surrounded by more change and choice than ever before. Our careers have become far less predictable and increasingly 'squiggly'. In this episode I have a chat with Helen Tupper, co-founder of Amazing If and co-author of "The Squiggly Career: Ditch the Ladder, Discover Opportunity, Design Your Career".
Making econometrics like art on a Friday and not maths on a Monday – Dr Grace Kite
01:00:32
What we covered in this episode:
What is Econometrics and why you do it?
The critical role of people in any econometric project
Cristiano, Coke and the complete misattribution of data
Importance of senior buy-in to an Econometrics project
Making econometrics like art on a Friday not maths on a Monday
Marketing as an investment not a cost
How the data captures the behaviour of people
What Grace learnt when rebranding her business
Why Grace has been turning business down
How Jon created the Uncensored CMO brand in 45mins
Why every tech company has a blue logo
Traditional vs Modern marketing and who is right
Is creative effectiveness really in decline?
How life stage influences media choice more than anything
The Wrong and the Right of it and what the data really says
Why ‘it depends’ is usually the right answer
The importance of evidence over opinion on social media
Does paid search actually lead to sales?
The role of search as a window into consumer demand
Does Share of Search actually predict demand for your brand
The one thing Marketers are not talking about but should be
About Dr Grace Kite
With more than 20 years’ experience, Dr Grace Kite is a business economist who’s worked on more than 120 econometrics projects across all the main advertising buying categories. In each of these categories, she has developed deep knowledge on market trends and the true nature of competition.
Grace is a columnist at marketing week and WARC and a regular speaker on marketing effectiveness. With over 4,000 social media followers, she now appears alongside the likes of Mark Ritson and Les Binet. She believes that knowledge that arises from effectiveness analysis doesn’t get fed back to the people that plan campaigns often enough. Her writing and talks set out to ‘lift the lid’ in a way that normal people can understand.
After earning a PhD in Economics, Grace took on increasingly senior roles at Mindshare, Millward Brown, Holmes & Cook, Mediacom, PHD and OMD. In 2010 she founded the business now known as magic numbers.
Her work has led to twelve IPA Effectiveness award winners plus a Cannes Grand Prix. She was a technical judge for the 2020 IPA awards, and will judge for WARC in 2021.
20 Nov 2024
The Power of Compound Creativity with Dom Dwight (Yorkshire Tea), Vickie Ridley (Lucky Generals) & Andrew Tindall (System1)
00:58:28
In this episode, we're going to be talking about Compound Creativity, a new report by System1 in partnership with the IPA showing how being consistent with your creative compounds over time. I'm speaking with the author of the report, Andrew Tindall, who explains the core facets of the report and shares some fascinating statistics on the impact of creative consistency.
And in a double bill, I'm also joined also joined by Dom Dwight, from Yorkshire Tea, and Vickie Ridley, from their partner agency Lucky Generals. Yorkshire Tea have been putting the principles of compound creativity to practice over many years and have been hugely successful as a result. So not only are we talking about the data, we're also talking about the practice.
00:00 - Intro 00:58 - Launching the Compound Creativity report 01:35 - Coming up with the right name for Compound Creativity 02:52 - The building blocks of consistency 05:13 - The value of being consistent 08:04 - How compounding helps wear in 09:25 - Power of fluent devices 12:14 - Collaborating with the IPA for the business effects data 15:00 - Don’t fire your agency 16:39 - The 5 most consistent brands
Part 2 with Dom Dwight and Vickie Ridley of Yorkshire Tea
18:29 - Intro to Lucky Generals and Yorkshire Tea 19:25 - Dom Dwight’s history with Yorkshire Tea 22:28 - Where did the “doing things proper” idea originate 25:31 - Narrowing 17 ideas down to 3 26:19 - How to use celebrities well in advertising 29:57 - Yorkshire Tea Ad with Sean Bean 32:06 - Yorkshire Tea Ad with Kaiser Chiefs 38:03 - How does the campaign work across channels 42:24 - Key to a successful client agency relationship 48:37 - The results of Yorkshire Tea’s compounding creativity 52:56 - Advice to clients to get the most out of their agency
17 May 2023
How to really understand your audience - Yusuf Chuku, NBCUniversal
00:36:47
Yusuf has worked across most flavors of planning and strategy making him one of the few genuine hybrid strategists. His experience spans a number of the world’s leading corporations including Microsoft, BMW, Samsung, Kimberley-Clark, Kraft and Verizon. He is currently EVP, Client Strategy at NBCUniversal.
Early ambition to become a city trader
Falling into media planning
Wearing trainers to work
Selling the internet in 1995
Crossing the creative and media divide
Why all things are not equal
The birth of planning
Why so many Englishmen end up in New York
Why 90’s sitcoms are still so popular
The power of stories to attract a global audience
The special relationship between audience and programming
The 3 aspects of Fandom
98% of commercial airtime is as engaging as the content
Pricing media based on emotion
Reflecting people identity on screen
Satisfying cultural curiosity
The representation hierarchy
The diversity divided when people feel seen
The power of empathy to connect with audiences
How empathy and sympathy are different things
21 Apr 2020
New series: marketing in crisis
00:01:54
Welcome back everybody to the Uncensored CMO in rather different circumstances this time. So we were nicely underway with recording season 2 and we had interviews with Rory Sutherland, we had Mark Borkowski on there, Nils Leonard from Uncommon.
But you know what? It just didn't seem right to go out there with season 2 as planned when we're all in the middle of a crisis and our minds quite frankly or are elsewhere.
So what I thought I'd do instead was bring you some Covid-related catch-ups with industry leaders from different sectors. PR experts, CMOs running businesses with big P+Ls and thought leaders in the industry people like Orlando Wood, author of Lemon. I really want to hear their perspective on how should we be responding to this crisis?
What advice can they give us about how they are managing through what is unprecedented times with high level of uncertainty about what the future is going to hold?
So rather than give you the whole hour as I did in season 1 these are going to be tight 20-30 minute interviews with people that can offer their perspective advice.
Another thing you'll probably notice is a slightly different sound because we're recording from home, so bear with us this season. It might not be quite the rich experience that you're used to if you listened to season 1, but we'll be doing our very best and producer James will be working his considerable magic from his home office. And on the other side will bring you season 2.
04 Oct 2023
How LEGO used play time to unlock creativity - Julia Goldin, Global CMO, LEGO
00:43:48
Julia Goldin is the Global Chief Marketing and Product Officer for the world's no. 1 toy brand, LEGO. Prior to joining the LEGO Gin 2014, Julia was Global CMO at Revlon. She also had a 13-year career with Coca-Cola, where she held several senior global and regional marketing roles, including Division Marketing Director of Northwest Europe and deputy Chief Marketing Officer of Japan.
Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 00:53 - Julia’s background 01:57 - How did Julia become a CMO? 04:46 - What’s the secret to being a successful CMO? 07:51 - The secret to a long CMO tenure 09:37 - Staying on top of trends 11:30 - The LEGO mission and importance of plau 12:24 - Why play can help work 14:27 - Is working at LEGO as fun as it sounds? 17:51 - Product innovation at LEGO 20:02 - Collaborations and partnerships 23:11 - The best LEGO advertising campaigns 25:27 - The LEGO approach to sustainability 27:07 - Working with agencies 28:52 - Where should a CMO focus? 30:59 - Julia’s marketing career advice 36:23 - Getting the business to buy-in to marketing 40:26 - What will be important in the future
31 Mar 2025
AI agents - personalisation, productivity & performance with Adobe, ServiceNow and IBM
00:35:45
Live from Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, in this bonus triple header, Jon speaks with Colin Fleming (ServiceNow), Stacy Martinet (Adobe) and Billy Seabrook (IBM) about the hot topic in marketing today, AI, and what a new wave of agentic AI technology means for marketers.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:51 - Part 1: Colin Fleming 01:51 - The things people don’t understand about B2B marketing 03:32 - How AI is having an impact on marketing 05:29 - ServiceNow’s relationship with Adobe 06:21 - Advice to marketers to stay on cutting edge of AI 08:47 - Part 2: Billy Seabrook IBM 09:17 - Where are we on this AI journey 11:31 - Principles of an effective campaign using AI 13:02 - How effective has AI been for IBM 18:16 - What’s next when AI at scale becomes the norm? 21:08 - AI: a threat or an opportunity? 22:06 - Part 3: Stacy Martinet 22:33 - Stacy’s role at Adobe 23:18 - What makes great marketing for marketers? 24:12 - Communicating all the changes in marketing (specifically with AI) 25:15 - What is Agentic AI and what are it’s use cases? 28:27 - How technology is used to enhance creativity 30:31 - Tips on how to utilize agentic AI 31:43 - How to future proof our marketing 32:48 - What goes into creating an event like Adobe Summit
00:00 - Intro 00:51 - Part 1: Colin Fleming 01:51 - The things people don’t understand about B2B marketing 03:32 - How AI is having an impact on marketing 05:29 - ServiceNow’s relationship with Adobe 06:21 - Advice to marketers to stay on cutting edge of AI 08:47 - Part 2: Billy Seabrook IBM 09:17 - Where are we on this AI journey 11:31 - Principles of an effective campaign using AI 13:02 - How effective has AI been for IBM 18:16 - What’s next when AI at scale becomes the norm? 21:08 - AI: a threat or an opportunity? 22:06 - Part 3: Stacy Martinet 22:33 - Stacy’s role at Adobe 23:18 - What makes great marketing for marketers? 24:12 - Communicating all the changes in marketing (specifically with AI) 25:15 - What is Agentic AI and what are it’s use cases? 28:27 - How technology is used to enhance creativity 30:31 - Tips on how to utilize agentic AI 31:43 - How to future proof our marketing 32:48 - What goes into creating an event like Adobe Summit
18 Sep 2024
David Droga on fearless creativity, founding Droga5 and becoming CEO of Accenture Song
01:04:51
Today I'm speaking with one of the most awarded creatives on the planet, David Droga, founder of iconic agency Droga5, and now CEO of Accenture Song, one of the largest creative groups in the world. Described by David himself as "therapy", this conversation spans topics from his start as life as a copywriter, how he created some of the most creative work on the planet and what it's like to transition from a creative to a CEO.
00:00 - Intro 01:58 - How David Droga got into advertising 07:36 - Working at Saatchi and Saatchi Singapore 12:19 - Pushing boundaries and making yourself uncomfortable 14:29 - Moving to Saatchi London 20:32 - Why David Droga started Droga5 25:55 - Droga5’s first campaign for Marc Ecko 31:23 - The first idea Droga5 presented: GE Olympics Campaign 38:30 - Droga’s Unicef campaign 43:25 - Droga’s Newcastle Brown Ale work 46:25 - Huggies Super Bowl Ad 48:44 - The Coinbase QR Code Super Bowl ad 52:22 - Characteristics of the best CMO’s Droga has worked with 56:23 - What it’s like being CEO of Accenture Song
22 Nov 2023
How Airbnb bounced back from losing 80% of their business with long term brand building - Nancy King
00:44:26
Nancy King is the VP of Marketing at Airbnb. She leads Airbnb's global brand marketing team, performance marketing, marcom and social media teams. Prior to Airbnb, Nancy 20 years working across a mix of agencies, start-ups and as a founder of a strategy consultancy.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Nancy’s background as a creative
05:16 - What can people learn from both agency and client side experience
07:08 - Origins of Airbnb
08:42 - The phases of Airbnb
09:54 - Losing 80% of the business overnight
17:47 - Deciding to re-invest in advertising
21:23 - The challenges of not owning your product
25:03 - The best Airbnb ads
26:52 - Making creative in-house rather than using agencies
30:00 - The impact culture has on the work at Airbnb
31:51 - Working in a founder-led business
35:12 - How Nancy’s role has changed
40:12 - Power of industry events
42:00 - The most expensive Airbnb
17 Apr 2024
A CMO Masterclass - how John Lewis redefined emotional advertising - Craig Inglis
01:02:47
Today we're talking about what makes a great CMO. One of the CMOs that I've admired throughout his career is Craig Inglis, who famously was a CMO for John Lewis for many years, making those ads that you saw at Christmas and really defining the genre of Christmas advertising.
Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:50 - Craig’s marketing background
00:02:25 - Craig’s biggest marketing failures
00:09:34 - How to have a long tenure as a CMO
00:13:24 - How to be a great CMO
00:23:53 - Guessing the most emotional John Lewis ads
00:28:50 - How to move from rational to emotional strategy in retail
00:31:17 - How to sell in creative ideas to rational CEOs and CFOs
00:36:00 - The business impact of Monty the Penguin for John Lewis
00:38:50 - How John Lewis ads does long and short
00:41:00 - Focusing on customer experience
00:51:48 - From large consumer brands to B2B
00:55:11 - Being the chair of the Marketing Society
01:00:34 - Working for The Entertainer
23 Dec 2024
Never Mind The Adverts Christmas Special
00:25:13
For a special Christmas edition of the Uncensored CMO, we've recorded a bonus episode of the Never Mind the Adverts podcast, featuring our good friend Orlando Wood. We talk about some breaking news, have some festive drinks and review some of the best Christmas Ads this year (yes, including that Coke ad). Enjoy.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 01:10 - The news 03:53 - Orlando’s Christmas Stocking Fillers 09:06 - Drinks trolley 12:38 - Review of the 2024 Christmas Ads 16:45 - A break from the ads 21:03 - Name that ad
08 May 2024
Snapchat CMO on fixing social media, being creative leader of the decade and lessons from Dan Wieden - Colleen DeCourcy
00:42:10
Colleen DeCourcy is the Chief Creative Officer at Snap, having previously spent over a decade at Wieden+Kennedy as co-president and Chief Creative Officer, working on some of the largest brand accounts in the world. In this episode we talk about Colleen's time at W+K, some of her favourite quotes from Dan Wieden and how she's now tackling brand at Snapchat.
Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:22 - Colleen DeCourcy background 03:30 - Winning creative leader of the decade 06:30 - Colleen’s tenure at Wieden+Kennedy 13:50 - The TIME Interview 18:39 - From retirement to joining Snapchat 21:56 - The challenges of Snapchat 26:49 - Creating happiness in social media 30:02 - The 3D Chess of Being CCO and CMO at Snapchat 36:12 - What’s it like working for Evan Spiegel 39:07 - Advice to young marketers from Colleen DeCourcy
21 Nov 2022
Advertising creativity in times of crisis
00:31:37
The most returned guest in Uncensored CMO history, Orlando Wood, is back. He made a brief cameo last episode but I wanted to dive deeper into creative styles that work in difficult times and if you should re-use old creative.
What we covered in this episode:
How Hovis proved the power of wear-in with an almost 5 Star
Creative inspiration from an ad that is almost 50 years old
How the romantic era is reflected in the Hovis ad
The role of the right-brain in capturing attention
What covid taught us about creative wear-in vs wear-out
The accidental creative experiment that occurred during covid
Proof that ‘wear-out’ is a marketing myth
The difference in campaign length between the US and UK
How right-brained features perform better in recession
Why Christmas 2022 Advertising is the best yet
The role of nostalgia in difficult times
How Kevin the carrot delivers consistent 5 Star success
Great creative shouldn’t just be for Christmas
The power of fluent devices in advertising and re-using old work
Orlando’s top 3 tips for investing in a recession
How good advertising can support price increases in recession
How brand building helps you come out of recession better
Orlando’s top 3 tips for making creative work in a recession
Why focussing on character, incident and place make effective creative
The role of humour in difficult times
26 Jun 2024
How e.l.f built a billion dollar beauty brand - Kory Marchisotto
00:46:52
Kory Marchisotto is the Chief Marketing Officer of e.l.f Beauty, a beauty company that surpassed over $1b in annual sales. They're digital first brand builders, taking the internet by storm and connecting closely with their customers. In this episode we talk about why Kory invests heavily in their brand, how every employee is a shareholder and why they collaborated with Liquid Death.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro 01:15 - Kory’s background 06:11 - Founding story of e.l.f 08:39 - How do e.l.f make their products so affordable 11:30 - Why e.l.f are investing in brand building 15:15 - Staying close to your consumer 19:44 - Bringing customer insight into the business 21:23 - Staying agile as a large business 23:43 - Where have e.l.f invested marketing spend 27:28 - The e.l.f customer demographic 30:57 - e.l.f’ x Liquid Death collaboration 33:24 - e.l.f x Chipotle 37:01 - The e.l.f culture and why it’s important 41:00 - Kory’s advice to younger marketers 44:08 - Why Kory shares her learnings so much on LinkedIn
21 Feb 2024
How a new brand character challenged Whisky conventions to help The Woodsman double market share
00:38:33
Today I'm speaking with Whyte and Mackay Marketing Director Janice McIntosh and Mr President (their agency) CCO Jon Gledstone about the launch of their new campaign for The Woodsman brand. The "Well Earned" campaign score a whopping 4.8 stars on the System1 test and saw the launch of a brand character, Barry the Beaver, in a move that defies convention in the traditional Whisky category. From internal battles to hurdles presented by the regulators, both Whyte and Mackay and Mr President had to overcome some barriers to bring this campaign to life.
Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:01 - Inventing The Woodsman 01:42 - Creating a brand dominated by big players 04:00 - Standing out in a product dominated category 05:46 - Balancing demand and supply 06:31 - Availablity of the brand 07:11 - Overcoming perception barriers 09:15 - Coming up with the “Well Earned” positioning 13:06 - How to sell in breaking convention 16:00 - How the agency helped sell the idea 18:29 - Creating a new character 20:02 - Characters vs Celebrities 21:07 - Using humour in a traditional category 23:23 - Creating a physical barry the beaver 24:18 - The importance of craft in the ad 26:07 - Staying on the right side of regulations 28:23 - A good client agency relationship 30:09 - How important is testing and data to back up creative decisions 31:53 - The importance of mental and physical availability 33:32 - The results 35:01 - What’s next for the brand?
29 Jan 2025
The Attention Economy: Why not all reach is equal with Karen Nelson Field
00:34:15
Dr Karen Nelson Field is a multiple returning guest to the podcast, talking about her book "The Attention Economy: A Category Blueprint" which takes an in-depth look into the dynamic world of marketing and advertising, unveiling the pivotal role that human attention measurement plays in the present and future landscape. In this episode we discuss the history of attention, how the platforms are manipulating our attention, why not all reach is equal, and, ultimately, what we can do about it.
00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Karen’s new book 01:42 - The history of attention 03:20 - The case for attention 04:17 - The difference between active and passive attention 09:37 - Linking attention to memory 11:30 - Linking attention to advertising outcomes 14:12 - The concept of attention elasticity 15:17 - How platforms are manipulating our attention 17:51 - How to measure attention 20:10 - Seen vs served 25:22 - How is the industry progressing? 27:21 - Is there a new metric we can use in place of CPM? 29:10 - How to buy media based on attention 31:25 - Karen’s new course 32:31 - How is Amplified Intelligence going
07 Jun 2022
Sex, driving and how to be a CMO - Marg Jobling, NatWest CMO
00:45:29
Margaret Jobling is the Group Chief Marketing Officer at NatWest. Margaret has spent the majority of her marketing career in FMCG, before to joining the utilities sector in 2014, as Director of Marketing at British Gas. At the beginning of 2016 she moved into a CMO role at Centrica, transforming the firm’s marketing capabilities across all regions. Then in 2020, joining NatWest as CMO.
In September 2020, Margaret was announced as one of Marketing Week’s Top 100 Most Effective Marketers for her work at Centrica.
What we covered in this episode:
How Marg went from laser chemistry to marketing
Blagging her way through her first job in marketing
Capturing an emotional response in a rational way
How to look smart giving creative feedback to an agency
The ABC of assessing a piece of creative
Why marketers face a much more complex context today
How marketing is like sex and driving
Using the language of business in the Board room
Why marketers should focus on customers and commercials first
The two hats every CMO wears
Creating a culture where people can test and learn
Inverting the pyramid and supporting the marketing team
Why the store manager is king
The power of showcasing what has gone wrong
Marg’s hidden showreel of what went wrong
Jon’s best training talking about his biggest failures
Why Marg wouldn’t go back to fast moving consumer goods
The importance of a consistent customer experience
How service sector and FMCG differ
Defining what marketing is
The inspiration behind ‘tomorrow starts today’
Why procrastination is the largest barrier to your success
What NatWest is doing to protect the climate
How banks can finance a greener economy
Which technology we should be paying attention to
Why not even the tech giants know what the future holds
If it saves time, money or effort it will work
What being in the Top 100 CMO charts does for Marg
Leaving the world in a better state than we found it
02 Apr 2025
Prof G on AI eating itself, social media rage & the end of the CMO
00:57:03
Scott Galloway (Prof G) has returned to the Uncensored CMO podcast for a second time, in a special live episode. Galloway is Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and host of the Prof G and Pivot podcasts. He joins Jon in a special live episode in London and lives up to his billing as the most uncensored guest of all time. Scott takes big swings at the advertising industry throughout the episode - despite the audience of CMOs - claiming that the days of the CMO are numbered. He continues with his damning commentary on why the era of brand is dead, why rage is the new sex, why young men are in trouble and what marketers need to do in the age of AI.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 02:15 - How does Scott deal with the online negativity? 09:00 - Why the CEO saviours of social media won’t be turning up 16:13 - Scott’s thoughts on the Adolescence Netflix show 23:51 - Why marketers need to do the hard things 27:56 - How does Prof G assess a business opportunity 33:36 - What corporate employees can learn from entrepreneurship 40:22 - Why the CMOs days are numbered 47:33 - How should marketers approach AI 56:06 - What things has Prof G been profoundly wrong about
Thank you to System1 for making the live event possible.
Credits
Host: Jon Evans Executive Producer: James McKinven Director: Kerry Collinge Event management: Lara Zwirn, Gen Norris Social media: Sam Price Event graphics: Colin Jenkinson Production: Kinura
21 Jun 2023
Cannes Lions - The 3rd Age of Effectiveness with Les Binet, Grace Kite & Tom Roach
00:24:25
Following on from the IPA EffWorks and WARC session on the Terrace Stage in Cannes, I speak to effectiveness legends, Les Binet, Grace Kite and Tom roach to outline the big shifts in advertising effectiveness in the digital era, suggesting that we’re leaving the trough of disillusionment and moving onto the plateau of productivity.
Digital once promised so much in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, tracking, and accountability. But the reality didn’t live up to the hype. And now we’re entering a new era - one where the best understanding about things have always worked are being blended with new ways of doing things, and the evidence suggests things are beginning to work better as a result. They challenge the narrative that creativity is declining and digital is the culprit. On the contrary, analysis of the ARC database shows effectiveness is improving in some places, (less so in others).
It will also shine a light on brand-building in the platform world, specifically, creativity within the platforms. Tom talks about how clients, agencies and creators are getting to grips with the new environment, showcasing examples of effective creativity from around the world.
17 Jan 2024
A B2B marketing masterclass with PwC's Global CMO, Antonia Wade
01:05:26
Today I'm joined by Antonia Wade, Global CMO at PwC and Author of The B2B Buyer Journey. This episode is a true B2B masterclass. We break down the importance of brand, reputation and relationships vs what people traditionally think is important in B2B. We also break down each stage of the marketing funnel to find out how best to reach them at every point in the buyer journey.
00:20:53 - Why brand and reputation are so important
00:24:43 - Why having an online presence matters
00:29:39 - Marketing from cost centre to profit centre
00:34:14 - Marketing at different stages of the buyer journey
00:39:54 - Why people think B2B is boring
00:46:30 - Why purpose has a bigger role in B2B
00:48:38 - Stage 1: Reaching Horizon Scanners
00:51:41 - Stage 2: Reaching Explorers
00:55:18 - Stage 3: Reaching Hunters
00:57:39 - Stage 4: Capturing the Active Buyer
00:59:15 - Stage 5: Marketing post-purchase
01:01:18 - How will AI transform B2B marketing
09 Nov 2021
How I got fired twice in one year, the Uncensored CMO story - Jon Evans
02:05:00
In this special episode of Uncensored CMO, Jon finds himself on the other side of the mic being interviewed by producer James McKinven, who grills him on some unusual career moves. After a promising start in the City Jon makes a large u-turn and decides to become a marketer instead where he goes on to learn his early craft at Britvic. His next big break came at drinks business First Drinks where he notoriously closed down the London underground after causing a terror threat. After recovering from that he returned to Britvic to launch brands in International markets and from there set up a new team of challenger brands. With the entrepreneurs bug he poured his life savings into a management buy in which didn’t end well. From there he went ‘major league’ as Marketing Director of LRS before being fired. Then landing his dream job Brewdog he only managed 3 months before being fired again. But the story ends well as you find Jon as host of Uncensored CMO and CMO for System1 talking about what makes advertising work. In this episode he shares everything he has learnt in his career and why being fired twice in one year wasn’t the setback you might imagine.
What we covered in this episode:
What inspired Jon to go into Marketing
Making the giant leap from Business Finance to Marketing
Getting a big break launching Fruit Shoot at Britvic
How small conversations can make a big difference
Why leaving Britvic was the best way to get promoted at Britvic
Learning the marketing ropes at First Drinks
Causing a terror threat in the London Underground
Appearing on Have I Got News For You
How sometimes it pays to go back
What you discover in International marketing
Creating a challenger brand from within the company
Betting his life savings on a Management Buy In
What you learn when you have nothing
Landing a grown up CMO role at Lucozade Ribena Suntory
Working with a Boxing legend Anthony Joshua
Imposter syndrome when going from nothing to £50m budgets
Managing perception vs reality in a large corporation organisation
Creating the best performing OOH ad ever
How to screw up the Lucozade reformulation
Getting fired despite delivering every single KPI
Jon’s 100 day plan to meet 100 people
Landing his dream job at BrewDog
Getting fired (again) after only 3 months
The power of being unreasonable
Was James Watt a good CEO to work for?
The unexpected source of work after being fired
How Uncensored CMO was born
The episode that made him cry
What happens next for Uncensored CMO and how he wants to help you
20 Sep 2023
TikTok sensation Rob Mayhew on turning his passion into a business
01:19:27
For a very special edition of the podcast (episode 100!) I'm joined by a very special guest, Rob Mayhew, TikTok sensation and Creative Director at Gravity Road. Rob's witty commentary on the industry comes in the form of his hugely entertaining short-form videos, which often go viral on TikTok and on LinkedIn. Having found himself between jobs during COVID, Rob dug into his comedy roots and started posting up to 8 videos a day on TikTok which have grown in popularity exponentially over the past few years. He now finds himself striking some impressive brand partnerships who all want a slice of his comedy gold.
This episode covers the serious to the absurd. From Rob's story of how he got into the industry, to pitching a new British Airways ad to a special guest. I couldn't think of anyone better to have as guest 100.
00:00:00 - Start 00:03:41 - Rob’s backstory 00:07:32 - Rob’s comedy background 00:09:39 - How Rob got into TikTok 00:13:11 - Coming up with content ideas 00:16:50 - Rob’s most popular TikTok 00:19:25 - Landing a partnership with Pret 00:21:12 - The ultimate sponsor 00:23:34 - Jon’s pitch horror story 00:30:06 - Finding Rob new sponsors 00:31:17 - Pitching Nils Leonard Rob’s idea 00:37:07 - Sponsor brainstorm 00:38:51 - Cannes 00:40:39 - Making a career switch at 40 00:43:09 - Making a living from making online content 00:46:47 - Why Rob called his new agency Dunning Kruger 00:49:09 - Struggles of working for yourself 00:50:03 - Who are Rob’s heroes 00:53:47 - Dealing with inbound volume 00:54:39 - Rob’s new book 00:56:38 - Agency radio show 00:57:34 - Jon’s favourite guests 00:59:42 - What guest would Jon like on the pod? 01:02:22 - Rob getting fired 01:06:58 - The difference a good boss can make 01:09:21 - Something Rob has never told anyone else before 01:13:50 - How to be good on TikTok 01:14:47 - How to make B2B sexy again
19 Apr 2023
Humour, purpose & beating imposter syndrome - Jo Arden, Ogilvy UK
00:46:25
Jo Arden is the Chief Strategy Officer of Ogilvy UK, and she joins me on the podcast to talk all things strategy. What's involved, why it's important and how to make a career of it. Jo's experience is vast, not landing a "strategy" role until her 30's and since has had senior roles at Publicis•Poke and MullenLowe.
Here's what we covered in our chat:
How Jo got into strategy
Her winding path from PR through business development and into strategy
What does a Chief Strategy Officer do?
The role of generosity in being a great CSO
The business case for involving your strategy team on a core business problem
The one question you should always ask your customer
“Making your thinking as funny as possible”
Why the winning ads in technology don’t take themselves seriously
The ‘good sense of humour’ approach to planning
“If you aren’t having fun you aren’t doing great work”
In praise of Dove and it’s purpose in advertising
“If it didn’t sell it wasn’t creative”
Why the industry loves a crisis narrative
The crisis in creativity is more of a trend than a crisis
Cannes Lions role in creative exploration rather than effectiveness
Jon was left out of his own Cannes Lion winning party
The one Campaign award no-one wants to win
Why Turkeys eat Lions for breakfast
“The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife”
The challenge of bringing the consumer into the room
The importance of doing normal things
Spending the most time out of the office
Rabbits in the office and other fun things at Ogilvy
Generating borderless creativity
Putting pressure on the task and not yourself
How to create an environment for creativity to happen
What Jo would advise her 21 year old self
Jon share his almost unbelievable imposter syndrome story
Using the power of your network
20 Sep 2021
The Long and the Short of It - Peter Field
01:03:02
Peter Field has spent 15 years as a strategic planner in advertising and has been a marketing consultant for the last 20 years. His pioneering work on the link between creativity and effectiveness – such as Media in Focus with Les Binet - has earned Peter a global reputation as one of the Godfathers of Effectiveness.
What we covered in this episode:
How he become ‘Godfather of effectiveness’
Getting fired from two agencies
The evidence based approach to marketing
Creating the IPA database
Origin of The Long and Short of It
The curse of short term thinking
Why brands take time to build
The power of emotion to create connections
The window in which you measure effectiveness is vital
Long term is broad reach emotional creative
Why the 60/40 ratio works
Why brand building matters even more for DTC
The conflation of physical and mental availability on line
The myth of digital replacing brand
Convincing the CFO of the role of brand building
Why investors really get it
Why the ESOV model matters and what it tells us
The impact of brand size on ESOV
The challenge facing new entrants and why challenger brand thinking matters
How economies of scale benefit market leaders
The amplification power of creativity
The tidal wave of disposable creativity
How award judges are celebrating short term activation
Even effectiveness awards lack long term results
The dangers of going dark in a recession
Why we should be more P&G than Coke
Why it’s time to celebrate consistency
The power of strong fluent devices
What happens when brands stop advertising
The one thing we should be talking about which we aren’t
The breakdown in the correlation between media spend and share of voice
Why we should be measuring share of attention rather than share of voice
Brand of the year CMO on Innovation, TED talks and what B2B can learn from B2C - Rebecca Hirst
00:56:11
Rebecca Hirst is the Chief Marketing Officer of EY UK, a TEDx Speaker and a winner of Campaign's 40 over 40. Before joining EY and making the switch to B2B, Rebecca was Marketing Director at Samsung and working on brands including Coca-Cola, Schweppes, Kellogg’s, Kleenex, Microsoft, IBM, United Airlines, Lufthansa and Star Alliance.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:54 - Winning Campaign’s 40 over 40 04:33 - Being a Ted Talk speaker 08:01 - Rebecca’s time at Samsung 13:08 - Why Jon loves being a challenger brand 17:08 - Working at Coca Cola vs Pepsi 23:00 - How Rebecca transitioned into a B2B role 25:46 - The power of compounding 32:03 - How is B2B marketing different to B2C? 37:36 - How to influence change at a large organisation 46:12 - How EY became UK’s strongest brand 52:14 - Rebecca’s advice to young marketers
18 Dec 2024
Fame, Feeling & Flamingos: how consistency helped Very hit new heights
00:41:51
Jess Myers CCO of The Very Group, returns to the podcast sharing the success of her role over the past year. We'll explore how Jess and her team navigates the crucial "Golden Quarter" leading up to Christmas, the importance of creative consistency, and the successes they've achieved by sticking with what works. Plus, we'll hear about the innovative launch of the Very Media Group and how their flamingo-themed campaigns resonate with customers.
Jess also sheds light on balancing commercial objectives with customer experience, fostering collaborative relationships, and the unique challenges of her executive role. Whether it's optimizing holiday ads or championing a vibrant company culture, Jess’s insights are sure to inspire.
Timestamps
00:00 - Start 01:07 - Jess’ custom merch for the podcast 02:07 - Jess’ review of the year at Very 04:28 - From Chief Marketing Officer to Chief Customer Officer - what’s changed 06:17 - How marketers can thrive in the boardroom 08:53 - Embracing “hun culture” 12:35 - How important the golden quarter is for retailers 15:46 - Why Very chose the run the same campaign at Christmas 21:05 - Why short term is important in the Golden Quarter 23:57 - Very's Flamazing Flamingos as a fluent device 28:40 - Launching the Very Media Group 31:03 - Launching House of Flamingo 34:18 - Jess’ learnings from the last year at Very 35:45 - Making the most out of your agencies 39:29 - Closing thoughts
14 Nov 2022
Ritson on Recession: what every marketer needs to know
00:56:50
Storm clouds continue to gather over the global economy. With the latest quarterly UK GDP figures released on November 11 and the US and other parts of the world also bracing for a recession, this special recording of System1’s webinar dives into how brands can navigate tough times.
However, tough times also bring opportunity. As the late great F1 driver Ayrton Senna once said, ‘You cannot overtake 15 cars in sunny weather… but you can when it’s raining.’
In possibly the most comprehensive study of recession, Nitin Nohria found that 9% of companies come out of a recession in better shape than they went in.
We're joined by Professor Mark Ritson, brand consultant and creator of the Mini MBA in Marketing, and Orlando Wood, author of IPA best-selling books Lemon and Look Out, to understand how brands should approach this challenging period.
Why the CEO expects the CMO to step up in a crisis
The 4 issues that hold businesses back in a crisis
Why marketers must do their market orientation and get their strategy in place first
The over-whelming evidence that supports investing in a recession
What happens when brands go dark and why small brands suffer most
How ESOV can be more achievable in recession and what it means for the long term
The very strong business case for investment
The role of operational efficiency and innovation to help come out strongly
How to get your pricing strategy and communication right
Whether you should be changing your communication
Inspiration from a campaign that is as good today as it was 50 years ago
How right brained creative features are connecting better in recession
Why wear out is a myth based on thousands of ads on the System1 database
What we can learn from the current Christmas Adverts
The role of character fluent devices to make your advert more memorable
Top 3 reasons to invest in creative right now
Top 3 ways to make creative emotionally engagement and effective
Mark and Orlando answer some tough questions
Why marketing professors don’t teach how marketing actually works
05 Mar 2025
Rare Beauty: the story behind the success of Selena Gomez’s make up brand - Katie Welch
00:51:37
Rare Beauty is a brand built on the inclusive approach to beauty set by their celebrity founder, Selena Gomez. They've taken the US market by storm and so I'm speaking to their CMO, Katie Welch, about how they've done it. From strong positioning and making a difference in mental health across their customer base to growing a strong presence on social media (with a little help from their founder with over 400m Instagram followers), Rare Beauty is a wonderful success story of a challenger brand.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:50 - Katie’s career background 07:46 - How Katie joined Rare Beauty 11:09 - The challenges of launching a startup beauty brand 14:19 - The positioning of Rare Beauty 16:21 - New guest host interruption 16:58 - Being true to the brand positioning 19:48 - Being a purpose led brand 22:47 - Addressing the pressures of social media 26:27 - Building the Rare Beauty brand on social media 28:22 - How involved does Selena Gomez get in the Rare Beauty brand 29:57 - The secret to a successful product launch for Rare Beauty 33:00 - Dealing with the growth challenges of a scale up 40:36 - Evolving the Rare Beauty community 42:24 - What’s next for the Rare Beauty brand? 42:47 - Being an entreprenuer in a startup 45:09 - Katie growing her own social accounts
22 Jan 2025
From Shark Tank to Super Bowl - the story of America's fastest growing beverage (Poppi) with Allison Ellsworth
00:46:59
In this episode I'm joined by Allison Ellsworth, founder of the fastest growing beverage brand in the US, Poppi.
Poppi was started as Mother Beverage in 2018 (a nod to the raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar used in the drink) but was rebranded after featuring on Shark Tank in the same year. Now, it's one of the biggest soda brands in the US, outselling Coke and Pepsi on Amazon. I speak to Allison about the journey of creating the brand, how influential TikTok was for their growth, their merch strategy and how they ended up buying a Super Bowl ad. This is a fascinating account of how a challenger brand can disrupt an industry in such a small period of time.
Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 02:08 - Allison’s experience on Shark Tank 05:56 - Funding and rebrand of Poppi 10:36 - Launching the brand during COVID 11:06 - Outselling Coke and Pepsi on Amazon 12:33 - How big is the impact of Shark Tank 13:45 - Growing the brand on social media 17:02 - The influencer and social first marketing strategy 19:45 - How Poppi’s marketing popup worked 22:05 - Why Poppi invested in merch and launching in Target 24:36 - Choosing which flavours to launch with Poppi 28:04 - Approach to retail and growth 29:27 - Breaking into a competitive market 30:29 - Poppi’s Super Bowl campaign 35:30 - The journey from 2 to 200 employees 40:18 - How Allison hires at Poppi 42:05 - The hardest part of the journey at Poppi 44:07 - How Allison would start a new startup today
18 Oct 2020
Achtung! How to create and sustain attention - Orlando Wood, System1
00:30:12
Here's what we covered in this episode:
Who is Orlando and what is Lemon all about?
Have the insights in Lemon changed on the back of the Coronavirus crisis?
How emotion plays out in online video
Why emotion is imperative online when you only have 6 seconds to capture people's attention
Why you don't just need to be rational because your ads are targeted
Brands should be using online advertising not only for activation, but also for brand building
Examples of brands and ads doing this well
How advertising is similar to writing a novel and art
Why we've lost some humility in our advertising
What the vital ingredients are to make online advertising work effectively
Amazon’s Chief Creative Officer on the power of emotional advertising, distinctive brand assets and delivering at speed
00:37:32
Jo Shoesmith is the Global Chief Creative Officer at Amazon. She leads lead brand creative, design, production, social, and brand identity functions, as well as agency partnerships, in the largest fixed marketing portfolio investment at Amazon.
00:00 - Intro 01:04 - From rural Australia to Los Angeles 01:58 - From agency to client side 04:44 - That famous Jeff Bezos marketing quote 05:50 - What does the Chief Creative Officer at Amazon do 07:41 - Creating emotional, brand building advertising 09:22 - Using the brand distintive assets 10:33 - Creating inclusive advertising 13:05 - Advice for writing a really good brief 14:43 - Tenets to inform great creative 15:45 - Benefits of having in house creative (and working with agencies) 17:42 - Managing global creative teams 19:36 - What’s it like making a Super Bowl ad 22:42 - Innovation within Amazon 24:12 - Making things happen in a huge business 25:13 - Simplifying complex creative ideas 28:23 - Work Jo is most proud of 31:39 - How Amazon are using AI 33:44 - Advice to a young Jo
13 Sep 2022
How a great culture led to creativity at KFC - Meghan Farren, KFC CMO
00:42:38
Meghan Farren spent 10 years at KFC UK, spending the last 5 as CMO. What does it take to run a marketing department of one of the biggest consumer brands? What do you do when you run out of chicken as a fast food chicken joint? How do you change your strapline when it involves licking fingers during a global pandemic? And how a strong culture is pivotal for all this creativity to happen.
What we covered in this episode
Going back to KFC after a year - back to school vibe
The realness of working in a KFC restaurant
Research vs real world experience
How Meg got into marketing in the first place
From finance to marketing
How to transition industry
Experience vs action and impostor syndrome
How to nail a new job
Importance of culture
Hiring the best talent
Being close to the customer
Marketing week brand of the year
Power of consistency
The FCK campaign
How taking a big risk can pay off
How humour in a crisis can help
KFC’s many distinctive assets
How to do brand innovation well
Advice for aspiring CMOs
06 Nov 2024
The brands trying to change the world - Chris Baker, Serious Tissues & Change Please
01:04:49
Chris Baker is an award-winning advertising and social change strategist turned entrepreneur. He is the Founder & CEO of Serious Tissues, a toilet roll brand that fights climate change and deforestation by planting trees with every sale. Over 1.2m trees have been planted in just three years. He is also the Co-Founder of Change Please, a coffee brand that has helped hundreds of homeless people off the streets by training them as baristas, and is available in 23 countries. Change Please was named the World’s Leading Social Enterprise in 2018 and in Marketing Week’s 100 Most Disruptive Brands in the World. He has spent 20 years working on the world’s biggest brands including Unilever, Pepsico, Boots, Sky and Alpro whilst winning over 100 strategic and creative awards along the way.
00:00 - Intro 02:09 - The premise of his book 04:27 - Why Chris called the book Obsolete 06:41 - Making positive change with small businesses 18:32 - Being inspired by change brands 21:53 - How to win against established brands 27:03 - The advantages of purpose 29:31 - How Chris started Change Please 32:48 - Measuring the impact of Change Please 36:28 - How change brands can be distinctive 40:14 - Why Tony’s Chocolonely are making an impact 42:06 - Putting change ahead of profits 47:06 - Applying a change mindset to other industries 49:37 - Making an impact commercially and with purpose 52:55 - How Serious Tissues started 55:53 - The power of partnerships 57:49 - Chris’ biggest takeaway from writing Obsolete
13 Dec 2023
How Just Eat used celebrities and jingles to help them become market leader - Susan O'Brien
00:43:00
Today I'm joined by Susan O'Brien, who is the VP Brand at Just Eat Takeaway. Just Eat are famous for their ads with celebs such as Snoop Dogg and Katy Perry, but are even more well known for their catchy jingle "Did somebody say...?". In this episode we break down Susan's career and how to make such an effective campaign.
Timestamps
00:00 - Start
01:16 - How Susan got into marketing
03:43 - Freelancing
07:30 - The secret to longevity as a marketer
09:44 - The realities of being a CMO
14:25 - The CMO’s view on Cannes
16:44 - The “Did Somebody Say” campaign
20:54 - The impact of audio branding
24:11 - Operating in a fiercely competitive market
26:01 - Choosing to invest in celebrity talent / Snoop Dogg
29:06 - From Snoog Dogg to Katy Perry
31:31 - Secret to an effective client agency relationship
32:44 - Coming up with new ideas
35:47 - Using your gut vs using the data
39:35 - Advice to marketers in scale ups
17 Feb 2025
A masterclass on business productivity with Nir Eyal
00:47:02
I think one of the biggest problems facing us today is the amount of distraction in our lives. Social media feeds, unnecessary meetings, huge inboxes full of emails you didn't really need. All these things are grabbing our attention and taking us away from doing what we're supposed to be doing.
In this episode I'm talking to Nir Eyal, who's the author of a brilliant book called Indistractable, which is all about how we can reclaim our attention to focus our energy around the things that really matter. Now, as marketers, we can have a massive impact on our brands and our business, if only we can focus our time and effort on the right things. So Nir is uncovering all the tips and tricks for how to do that and how to make sure you're more productive and less distracted.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
05:12 What is the source of distraction
07:06 How to deal with the internal triggers
12:50 Turning your values into time
18:14 Multi channel multitasking
20:06 Why we need to change meeting culture
26:20 Building a culture of indistraction in an organization
32:20 Imposter syndrome
34:53 Our perception of our quality of sleep
38:03 Luck is a belief set
42:12 Marketers are bad judges of marketing
44:06 Why successful people get more successful
16 Dec 2019
How to be a successful challenger - Adam Morgan
00:56:05
Adam is the founder of the eatbigfish consultancy and author of Eating The Big Fish which reached the Top100 books in the Amazon charts inspiring a whole generation of challenger brands in the process. Adam is a popular speaker and consults with brands all over the world on how to be a challenger. He has also written The Pirate Inside about building a challenger culture within your organisation and A Beautiful Constraint how to turn your limitations into advantages.
In this episode:
Why being No.2 is better
How he turned the anger of his project being shelved into a career-defining opportunity
Being turned down by Phil Knight and where the idea of a Challenger brand came from
The importance of over-commitment and being obsessed with execution
How Tony’s Chocolonely have become a truly challenger brand
How to be a pirate in the navy without getting fired
What you can learn from a catwalk show and how constraints can turn into your greatest advantage
The curse of data and how it leads us to a decline in creativity
The furtile zero and what to do with no budget
Adam shares his worst career moment
Why the meeting is never really the meeting and why the Japanese fall asleep in meetings
How confused.com challenged the meerkats on smaller budgets - Sam Day
00:52:06
Now in this episode, we're talking about one of the most competitive markets in the world - insurance comparison. Anyone who's followed this market will know just how intense it is. And how do you build a brand when you don't have a product yourself, but you're selling someone else's product? Well, it's one of those situations where marketing is all important and advertising can make all the difference to your success.
I'm catching up with Sam Day, who's been the CMO of confused.com, for the past 6 years, who successfully challenged this market and taken it from 4th to 2nd place on very limited budgets. So I want to find out from Sam the secret behind the success of the campaigns that he's run over the last few years, how he's transformed their business and what his plans are for the future.
00:00 - Intro 03:53 - Sam’s advice to a young marketer 06:27 - Sam’s greatest failure 08:44 - Management and leadership advice 12:27 - The secret to an extended CMO tenure 19:41 - Getting c-suite buy in with data 22:50 - Consistency 24:26 - Marketing when you don’t have a product 26:01 - Brand vs price 28:43 - Why name the brand after the problem (confused.com) 31:24 - Branding against one of the best branded characters of all time 34:02 - Why there’s no silver bullet for success 37:02 - Spontaneous awareness - how to win an effie 39:50 - Selecting an agency 42:01 - Great examples of populous advertising 44:14 - How agencies should pitch to CMOs 49:39 - What’s next for Sam Day
27 Dec 2023
Reloaded: How to be a successful challenger - Adam Morgan (2020)
00:56:01
Today I'm revisiting episode 3, with Adam Morgan, founder of eatbigfish and author of Eating The Big Fish, The Pirate Inside and A Beautiful Constraint to find out what it takes to become a successful challenger. Adam shares his tips for creating a challenger brand, transforming your culture and the power of constraints to driving innovation.
In this episode:
Why being No.2 is better
How he turned the anger of his project being shelved into a career-defining opportunity
Being turned down by Phil Knight and where the idea of a Challenger brand came from
The importance of over-commitment and being obsessed with execution
How Tony’s Chocolonely have become a truly challenger brand
How to be a pirate in the navy without getting fired
What you can learn from a catwalk show and how constraints can turn into your greatest advantage
The curse of data and how it leads us to a decline in creativity
The furtile zero and what to do with no budget
Adam shares his worst career moment
Why the meeting is never really the meeting and why the Japanese fall asleep in meetings
Building Britain's Most Iconic Brands - Kerris Bright (BBC)
01:11:15
Kerris Bright is the Chief Customer Officer at the BBC. She was previously Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Media.
She is a highly experienced leader, bringing a customer-centred, data driven approach to setting marketing strategy and executing with creative flair. Before Virgin, she held senior marketing positions at British Airways, ICI Paints and Unilever. While at British Airways, she spearheaded the development of ‘To Fly: To Serve’, a new purpose for the organisation and a multi-platform campaign and at ICI Paints she transformed the company from a ‘multi-local’ to global brand building organisation. After gaining a PhD in molecular neuroscience from the University of Sussex, she began her career in marketing as a graduate trainee at Unilever.
Timestamps
00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:26 - Why Kerris has a PHD in molecular neuroscience 00:04:04 - Getting marketing training at Unilever 00:09:56 - From Unilever to joining Dulux in crisis 00:18:33 - How marketers can work closely with commercial teams 00:22:12 - Purpose led campaigns 00:31:36 - Lessons from Kerris’ time in Private Equity 00:42:06 - From British Airways to Virgin 00:48:42 - Kerris’ role at the BBC 00:58:32 - The power of the BBC’s editorial independence 01:01:05 - Marketing the BBC 01:05:20 - How the BBC makes engaging content 01:08:13 - Kerris’ advice to aspiring marketers
01 Dec 2021
How Yorkshire Tea became Britain’s No.1 Tea - Dom Dwight
01:19:24
Dom Dwight former editor & journalist who, just over a decade ago, discovered a passion for doing marketing properly, most notably through Yorkshire Tea but with a growing focus on coffee for Taylors of Harrogate. He's on a mission to prove that brands can connect with consumers in a way that benefits business, people, and (if it's not too ridiculous) the world.
What we covered in this episode:
What a Proper Yorkshire Tea business card would look like
From journalist to CMO of the UK’s best loved Tea brand
Starting out on Twitter in 2008 to connect with ex pats who love tea
Going from No.3 Tea brand to No.1 in just a couple of years
Transforming market share from 13% to 33%
Yorkshire Tea for Yorkshire people using Yorkshire water
Why communication was the strategy to unlock growth
How social media informed Yorkshire Tea’s tone of voice
The serious case for more humour
Discovering the ‘where everything’s done proper’ idea with Lucky Generals
Why targeting new users was critical for brand growth
How well known Yorkshire celebrities helped the brand reach new users
Getting Sean Bean to run the company induction
Using the Brownlee Brothers for deliveries
Asking Michael Parkinson to do your interviews
Hiring Kaiser Chiefs to produce the hold music
Focussing on quality over quantity for Ad production
Turning the Advertising engines off during covid but gaining some useful tailwinds
Jon tests Dom on his ability to predict which Ad perform best on System1
The power of movement to capture our attention
The importance of creative instincts when making a great ad
Why trust is so important when delegating to your team
How Yorkshire Tea discovered a sense of humour
In house social on a budget vs agency high production
The power of low ego at Lucky Generals
Inventing the social distancing teapot during lockdown
Quietly going carbon neutral and painting the story on pack
The importance of culture to the performance of the brand
Time invested in genuinely asking ‘how people are; that supports during challenges
The Importance of a stable management team over the long term
Turning loyal brand drinks into advocates to recruit new ones
Customer complaints about not screening the full version of the Sean Bean TV ad
Debating which Christmas ads work and which don’t
Praising the power of M&S ‘this is no ordinary’ Advertising
Yorkshire Tea’s ambition take on the World
25 Oct 2023
How Salesforce built the world's most successful B2B brand - Colin Fleming
00:43:52
One thing we don't talk enough about on the Uncensored CMO is B2B. Specifically, B2B companies that are investing in their brand. One such company is Salesforce, who are a true force in the B2B tech world. I caught up with their EVP of Brand Marketing, Colin Fleming, a former Red Bull Racing driver, who gave us an insight into why their brand marketing has been so effective. From Super Bowl ads and partnering with Matthew McConaughey, to building recognisable brand characters and even creating their own huge event, Dreamforce.
00:00 - Intro 01:44 - Colin’s life as a racing driver 04:07 - From motorsport to marketing, what did Colin learn? 06:01 - The Salesforce journey 10:20 - The 95/5 rule in B2B 14:30 - The payback of investing in brand 15:27 - Investing in brand assets 19:31 - Why is a B2B company doing a Super Bowl ad? 21:26 - How Matthew McConaughey is involved in Salesforce 23:37 - Thoughts on AI 25:57 - Why Dreamforce is so big 32:28 - Why do people go to conferences 35:36 - Brand partnerships with Formula One 41:53 - Colin’s advice for marketers
10 Mar 2025
Rob Mayhew on the untapped creator opportunity in B2B, London vs New York and using social media as a brand
00:32:20
Rob Mayhew joins Jon for bonus episode, talking about his big move to New York City, becoming a full-time content creator and how brands can work with creators like him effectively.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 01:39 - Why Rob moved to NYC 04:20 - Rob’s new YouTube show 05:47 - London vs New York for marketers 08:00 - Rob’s approach to content in 2025 11:00 - Rob’s view on the future of the social platforms 14:17 - How System1’s ad testing works 17:27 - Rob’s funniest posts on LinkedIn 18:46 - Rob’s process for making content 20:16 - Any trends that are different in the US than UK 21:43 - Thoughts on the creator economy 23:09 - The Poppi vending machine backlash 24:22 - How does Rob plan his content? 25:18 - Different audiences for TikTok and LinkedIn 25:38 - Rory Sutherland’s TikTok 26:48 - Power of B2B content creation
15 Jan 2025
The power of personalisation and how to deliver at scale - Mark Abraham, BCG
00:57:33
Mark Abraham leads Boston Consulting Group’s Marketing, Sales & Pricing practice in North America. He also launched and leads the firm’s personalization capability. He has built some of the firm’s largest ventures and AI platforms, including Fabriq Personalization AI by BCG X, a personalization platform that accelerates personalization.
Mark coauthored the book Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI, which helps executives learn how to put personalization at the center of their strategy, accelerate growth, and capture their share of the $2 trillion personalization prize.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:49 - Why 2025 is the year of personalisation at scale 01:38 - When personalisation goes wrong 06:04 - Consumer data on our openness to personalisation 07:48 - The $2 trillion opportunity 10:08 - Who is doing personalisation well 14:27 - The competitive advantage of speed and scale 15:50 - How AI is driving personalisation forward 24:15 - The 5 areas to build the framework for personalisation 26:49 - How do you get information about your customer 31:53 - What is the most useful intelligence to gather 37:43 - How to make mass campaigns more targeted 42:36 - Some of the barriers to personalisation 50:19 - Why companies need to embrace AI 53:25 - Parting advice to people on implementing personalisation
15 Nov 2023
The divided brain, attention and how we see the world - Dr Iain McGilchrist
00:48:36
Dr Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, writer, and former Oxford literary scholar. McGilchrist came to prominence after the publication of his book The Master and His Emissary, subtitled The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. His work formed the basis of Orlando Wood's books on advertising, Lemon and Look Out.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 01:09 - Iain McGilchrist background 06:05 - Hasn’t the myth of the right and left brain been debunked 12:48 - The changes in society based on right brained dominance 16:36 - Are we seeing a left to left brained shift in society today? 22:10 - How are the big discoveries made? 24:39 - How understanding attention could change the world 26:34 - How the left and right brains do things differently 29:19 - Is attention crested by us or the world around us? 31:18 - Can we train ourselves to be more right-brained? 35:13 - AI asks Iain a question 37:13 - How did Orlando Wood connect with Iain McGilchrist 45:02 - Orlando’s most profound piece of Iain’s work
14 Jun 2023
Managing the biggest beauty brand in the world - Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, L'Oreal CMO
00:51:29
Lex Bradshaw-Zanger is the Chief Marketing & Digital Officer for L’Oréal South Asia Pacific, Middle East & North Africa Region. Prior to this role, Lex was the CMO for the UK & Ireland, held roles in the Western Europe Zone and was Chief Digital Officer for the L’Oréal Middle East and Africa Region. Prior to L’Oréal, Lex was with McDonald’s and Facebook. He is a recovered ad-man having spent over 10 years in the agency world, with both WPP and Publicis – his last role was Regional Director for Digital Strategy & Innovation for Leo Burnett MENA.
03 Apr 2024
How Guinness became Britain's favourite pint - Stephen O'Kelly, Global Brand Director
00:48:57
How does someone create advertising for a brand that is over 150 years old? That is exactly what Stephen O'Kelly has been tasked with as Global Brand Director at Guinness, one of the most iconic brands in the world. Recorded from the Connoisseur bar at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, this episode of Uncensored CMO is special. Not just because of how much history is involved in the brand, but the fact that Stephen is a fourth generation employee, carrying on the legacy of his family.
10 Jul 2024
From F1 to Manchester United: How marketing drives success in the worlds most elite teams - Ellie Norman
00:49:42
Ellie Norman has been at the top end of some of the biggest organisations in the world, having held senior marketing roles at Formula 1 and Virgin Media. Most recently, Ellie has been the Chief Communications Officer of Manchester United, one of the most high-pressure jobs in the world. In this episode I talk to Ellie about what it takes to drive success at the very top of your game.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro
00:48 - Celebrating Southampton FC
03:12 - Ellie’s marketing background
07:29 - Virgin Media campaign with Usain Bolt
12:09 - Why Ellie moved to Formula 1
15:12 - How Formula 1 owns the brand
17:51 - The Drive to Survive partnership with Netflix
25:59 - Moving to work for Manchester United
29:51 - Goals for the CMO of Manchester United
31:23 - When do people choose the club they support
32:59 - What role does social media play for Manchester United
35:01 - Dealing with scrutiny as a huge brand
37:10 - How Manchester United work with huge sponsor deals
41:39 - How do you do a great brand partnership
47:59 - Ellie’s one peice of advice for marketers
25 Jun 2020
Why it’s time for a new brief - Alex Myers
00:30:05
What we covered in this episode:
Why some brands have accelerated their growth with 3 years of market progression in 3 months, while others hit hard
How those brands that have gone dark and said nothing will be worst affected
Why Brewgooder’s work during the crisis has been impressive
How brands can do things without looking like they’re just jumping on the COVID bandwagon
Are there any signs of things getting better for clients?
How has Manifest changed in the past 3 months and what is going to stay permanent
Why they love the office
Advice - write your brief. There is an opportunity for you to recast your brand in the ‘new normal’. We won’t ever get a chance to hit the reset button again!
24 May 2023
How Google put humanity into technology - Nishma Robb, Google UK
01:03:06
Nishma is responsible for leading brand and reputation marketing for Google in the UK. She has led many of Google’s acclaimed projects and campaigns including Digital Garage, This is My YouTube, the Google Executive Summit, Brandcast, ThinkwithGoogle and Be Internet Legends.
Nishma is a Board Director at the School of Marketing and is proud to be a Fellow of the Marketing Society. Her accolades include Ad Age’s Woman to Watch, Europe (2018), Campaign A List (2017, 2018 and 2019), Drum Digerati and was recognised in the Hospital Group’s h100 list as one of the most influential and innovative people in the UK’s creative industry.
When she’s not looking after her twins or at work, you’ll find her in sparkly shoes dancing in the sun or under the stars!
Talking points
00:00 Intro 00:32 The inspiration behind MadWomen 04:18 How Teletext was the Google before Google 07:54 The responsibility of managing the Google brand 12:20 How Google makes you look clever 13:30 What search reveals about humanity 16:08 "It’s Ok to Ask" campaign with Uncommon 17:59 Why Marcus Rashford helping out with the campaign 20:37 It’s not what we ask it’s what we do with the answers 20:47 The role of humanity in Google's work 24:05 Why we shouldn't just sell cheese 26:01 How the Google Pixel phone makes technology accessible to new audiences 30:17 CODA, How Google helped people understand the life of someone with two deaf parents 34:02 How diverse advertising unites the audience 36:40 Telling one person's story well 39:40 Diversity and representation in media 42:28 How technology democratises the ability for creators to get funded 46:54 Creating the worlds first augmented reality brand 48:00 Top tips for YouTube creators 50:20 How creators and collaborators can grow your brand 51:05 The role of AI to democratise tech 53:13 Advice for advertisers using YouTube 58:01 The surprising effectiveness of brand building style advertising in digital 01:00:35 Nishma’s biggest ever failure 01:02:36 Outro
21 Aug 2020
Mark Ritson - The s**t, the pipe, and what to do with it
00:54:19
Here's what we covered in this episode:
Find out what inspired Mark to switch the actual classroom for the virtual one
How he ended up being the old, rich guy with a wine collection he used to laugh at
What he thinks of the 50% of Marketers that have no professional training
Why it's now time we all just all ditch the ‘D’ word and get back to Marketing
Find out what every normal person knows about Advertising that Marketers pay good money to figure out
Discover the most important factors in marketing effectiveness and why its time to think about the s**t we put through the pipe
Why a recession is exactly the time you want to be increasing your spend
Why you should never confuse a change in consumer context for a change in consumer behaviour
“Tell me what hasn’t changed and I will build a business around that” & other great quotes to counter the constant stream of ‘everything's changed. Buy this book’ hype
Discover why Mark believes the smartest people are not the ones sat around the boardroom table
Find out why most CMO’s are more C than M and are not always the best marketers in their team
The secret to CMO success is 80-90% politics over marketing
The dangers of Canadian morning TV after a big night out
We round off the episode finding out why Jon got fired after a 6-month ‘walk of shame’
When I say CMO what do you think of? I know, for me, I think boardroom politics. I think carefully managed messages. I think slick presentations. But what I don't get is, I don't get an honest answer. I don't get to know what they really think. I don't get to know how have they got where they are today, and what has shaped and influenced their career. And that got me thinking, wouldn't it be great if we had a podcast that asked some of the tough questions that get to the heart of what's going on. One that takes you behind the scenes to see how it really works. That's where the idea of Uncensored CMO came from.
I want to connect you to the best marketers on the planet. The people that have founded and run ad agencies, the people that do the most amazing research and the people that influence people through PR. I want to get to those people and find out how it actually works. Tell me the things that have gone well. Tell me the things that have failed.
Let me give you a little flavour to season one. I'm gonna be meeting people like Adam Morgan who founded the whole idea of challenger brands. I asked him, "How do you make a great challenger brand?"
The whole world of influencers, to me, was quite mysterious, but I went and met Arron Shepherd, he co-founded The Goat Agency, and I asked him about what a successful influencer campaign looks like.
Or, someone like Ian Millner, global CEO and founder of Iris. What's it like running a big ad agency? How do you get great work and how do you measure great advertising? What does a modern brand today have to do to stand out and be successful?
These are just some of the conversations I've been having, and there are loads more to come.
So I really hope you'll listen and subscribe to The Uncensored CMO. I'm gonna be launching this podcast on 16th December so set a notification, remind yourself to subscribe.
You can also follow me on Twitter, @UncensoredCMO. I look forward to having a great conversation with you.
31 Jan 2024
The flamingo effect: how Very made their retail brand sparkle - Jessica Myers Very CMO
00:49:53
Today we're joined by Jessica Myers, CMO of The Very Group. Previously Jess was CMO at Metro Bank and has since made the transition to the highly competitive retail market. At Very, she has overseen the launch of a brand new fluent device; the pink flamingoes. The campaign featuring the new characters scored a whopping 5.7 stars on the System1 scoring platform, Test Your Ad, amongst the very best ads made this year.
Timestamps
00:00 - Intro 00:52 - Jess’ background 06:11 - Marketing academy fellowship 07:13 - From big brand to challenger brand 10:46 - The modern marketer 11:57 - From finance to retail 15:31 - Dealing with the challenges of joining a new business 18:03 - Nailing positioning 22:09 - Doing long term marketing in retail 23:39 - Agency selection process for Very 27:22 - Understanding your customer 31:50 - The power of testing creative 36:36 - The increasing standard of advertising 38:28 - Creating a new fluent device - The Flamingoes 43:20 - The future of the brand 46:08 - Jess’ advice to aspiring marketers
23 Jun 2023
Cannes Lions - The Triple Opportunity of Attention with Karen Nelson-Field, Orlando Wood, Rob Brittain
00:23:39
In this episode I'm joined by three more effectiveness titans in my Cannes special coverage. Karen Nelson-Field, Rob Brittain and fan favourite Orlando Wood join me to talk about the triple opportunity of attention.
29 Mar 2023
Feel free to ignore this podcast episode - Richard Shotton
Many of these are commercial: What shampoo to pick? How much to spend on a bottle of wine? Whether to renew a subscription?
These choices might appear to be freely made, but psychologists have shown that subtle changes in the way products are positioned, promoted and marketed can radically alter how customers behave.
The Illusion of Choice identifies the 16½ most important psychological biases that everyone in business needs to be aware of today – and shows how any business can take advantage of these to win customers, retain customers and sell more.
Richard Shotton, author of the acclaimed The Choice Factory, draws on academic research, previous ad campaigns and his own original field studies to create a fascinating and highly practical guide that focuses on the point where marketing meets the mind of the customer.
You’ll learn to take advantage of the peak end rule, the power of precision, the wisdom of wit – and much, much more."
What we covered in this episode:
Why the podcast 4.9 star rating is the best one
The meanest tweet Uncensored CMO ever had
Social proof gives you wings
Why the new book has 16 ½ chapters
Feel free to ignore this chapter in the book
Why biases affect professionals as well as consumers
The Russian tank effect and how AI can be misled
How AI design a better pair of Nike Trainers
Recency, primacy and the peak end rule
How behavioural science supports the laws of marketing
Jon ranks the biases
The Zuckerberg t-shirt principle (red sneaker effect)
Why breaking convention is associated with higher status
Always use concrete phrases not fluffy marketing nonsense
The more visual the phrase the easier to remember
Relatable stories beat cold hard statistics
Telling one persons story well is better than trying to represent a group
How well can experts predict a successful Super Bowl Ad
Experts are trained to see novelty rather than broad appeal
We are all rewarded based on sophistication and complexity rather than simplicity
How thicker paper led to more charity donations
Why marketer can’t predict how well their own advertising will do
Professional forecasters are no better at predicting than the average person
Why freedom of choice leads to much greater perceived value
Why we would rather suffer a loss if we now someone else has done better
Adverts aren’t trying to be funny anymore even though the funny ones work
Why making a joke would increase your tips
Making it easy is the best way to make someone do something
We radically underestimate the impact of removing friction
Removing friction beats customer benefits every time
How to frame your pricing so people buy your preferred product
What colonoscopies can tell us about the peak end rule
Richard is author of the No.1 Marketing Book The Choice Factory which was the winner of BBH’s World Cup of Advertising books in 2018 beating some industry heavy-weights. Richard has 20 years of experience in Advertising planning, market research and behavioural science and last year made the big leap to set up a consultancy following the success of his book.
In this episode
How he ended up writing the best-selling marketing book of 2019
Why behavioural science should matter to every marketer
Why rhyming phrases are not just more memorably but also more believable too
How the decline in CMO & agency tenure is impacting on long term effectiveness
How our own experience impacts on our perceptions (the false consensus effect)
The impact of social proof on sales and how to use it
Why you’ll spend less on a night out when paying cash
How making something easy is a huge competitive advantage
Why branded glasses make beer taste better and worth more
Why a 4.5* review beats a 5* review (the pratfall effect)
How many of the best ideas happened by accident but were
From Mouldy Whoppers to Old Age Cows - Fernando Machado, NotCo CMO
00:46:56
Today I'm joined by one of the most influential and successful CMOs on the planet, Fernando Machado, of legendary Burger King fame. He went on to work at Activision and now is CMO at NotCo.
Fernando is a creative genuis, he's been awarded many, many times I've started to lose count (over 200 Cannes Lions). I wanted to catch up with Fernando and find out what makes a great creative marketer, was that "Mouldy Whopper" campaign actually worth it, and why did they sponsor a low league English football team? We also talk about what is he doing now working for a plant-based company and how AI plays a crucial role for them.
The importance of influencing an organisation QUOTE
The two hidden P’s of the CMO
The importance of a shared creative ambition
Why shared values and purposes is so important
What it takes to create award winning work QUOTE
Why is takes time to build up the credibility to take risks
Why huge failures are similar to most campaigns QUOTE
If your creative isn’t noticed everything else is academic
Why attracting the best creative talent means committing to bold work
The more creative work you do the more creative you are likely to get
When you have a smaller budget you have to get more creative
Sharing the results for Mouldy Whopper in public to address the critics
Where the idea for the Mouldy Whopper came from QUOTE
What Fernando learnt at Activision Blizzard
The power of networking in finding a perfect role
The biggest challenge facing NotCo
Why the best creative work gets done on small budgets
How AI is accelerating the development of plant based products
How AI beat the Nike design department
How AI created the most average Pizza advert
Why the brief matters when using AI QUOTE
From curation to creative, why AI is a tool and not a replacement of the marketing function
Why Notco is advertising old animals
Think of a colour that doesn’t exist
The one piece of advice for marketers
25 Apr 2022
When The World Zigs, Zag - Sir John Hegarty, BBH
00:52:25
It's 40 years since the founding of one of the most famous and iconic advertising agencies; BBH or Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty. Today I speak with founder, Sir John Hegarty to find out what it's been like to be at the helm of one of the world's most successful ad agencies for 4 decades.
We take a look back over a long history of advertising to see what's changed, what we can learn and maybe what new techniques today are worth investing in. We touch on many of the great campaigns that come out to BBH, two of my favourites in particular being Levi's from the early eighties and more recently, Audi, which was in fact, one of their founding clients and spanned the entire 40 year history of the agency. As you would expect an amazing storyteller full of wit and wisdom and lots of great advice.
Here's what we covered:
How Sir John got into advertising
What advice he would give after 5 decades in Advertising
Why you should entertain rather than inform
How advertising followed cultural trends
Why advertising appears to be making worse creative but expect better results
The lack of evidence for brand building via social media
How BBH turned Levi’s around and inspired their own agency positioning
The making of Levi’s iconic Laundrette advert
Why the model ended up wearing Boxer shorts
How Levi’s ad revitalised famous music tracks
The longest running BBH client
How the ‘factory visit’ inspired one of the most famous taglines
Why being illogical can be the right thing to do
Being defined by your work
The importance of creative people at the top of the company
How creativity helps solve business problems
Advice to clients for how to get the best out of their agency
How the audience ended up coming last in our priorities
Why we are all making creative decisions and how to be more creative
The importance of being Fearless and not being afraid to fail
Advice for selling in creative ideas to clients
The one piece of creative work John is most proud of
Why purpose gets you on the pitch but doesn’t win you the game
The fast and the fearless - Nils Leonard, Uncommon
01:12:18
Nils Leonard has spent over 20 years in the advertising and design industries working at a number of the most recognised agencies in London. In 2017, he founded the Uncommon Creative Studio alongside Lucy Jameson and Natalie Graeme, which aims to be “a creative studio building brands the real world is happy exists”.
This episode is split into 3 parts, including a bonus segment from my recording with Nils over a year ago. Here's what we covered:
Part 1 - Creating brands you wish existed
How Nils turned art into a career
How he found the 1 ad land job at the Job centre
The importance of culture & trust in the turnaround of Grey
Why it’s always the people and not the name above the door you should care about
The importance of being so clear on your mission that people choose to be in the room
How Volvo Life Paint was the inspiration for Uncommon
Why you should invest in your own idea rather than begging others to do it
Mystery project names, secret hotels and being followed by private investigators
How Halo coffee came into the world
Why the stories we tell ourselves manifest who we are
How panic drove the early success for the agency
The power of a website with nothing on it
Walking away from a major new client because it didn’t lead to Uncommon work
Giving young men confidence via the one second suit
Part 2 - The Uncommon work
Why Uncommon’s B&Q campaign brought tears to my eyes
Uncovering a real truth that led to those funny bright orange posters for B&Q
Blowing things up with Reality TV stars for ITV
Why we need to make the Ad break as entertaining as the programme
Backing start ups with an Uncommon accelerator
Moving from advertising to design, experience and new product launches
Why the Olympics needs to hold up a mirror to the world right now
An Uncommon year to win Campaign Agency of the Year
How the Pandemic crisis put creativity into overdrive
The emotion of seeing people in the office again
Nils gives his best advice to CMO’s on how to get to the best work
Painting a picture of cultural success as much as commercial success
Don’t be ashamed of talking about your personal ambition to make an impact in the world
Jim Carey “if you can fail at what you don’t love why wouldn’t you risk trying at something you do”
How fear gives us loopholes to get out of what we should be doing
Why you can’t brief someone else on your dream. Only you can make it happen.
Part 3 - a pre-pandemic view on the world
An early mistake by Nils when he did ‘release copy’ too early how Jon shut down the underground
Why your personal purpose matters and how we are seeing a return to creativity
The Gigabyte landfill of social content that no-body is asking for
How people used to look forward to the Ads as much as the programs themselves
Is the fire in your belly stronger than the fear in your head?
Breaking the internet with BrewDog’s first ever TV Ad
How we entered the age of outrage and sharing what we are offended by
Why you should treat outdoor like Instagram
The woods are burning so make a choice because everything we do is something we don’t do
How making good work is actually a magnet for talent
What the Uncensored CMO’s mission should be to galvanise people to start their own venture
Make a difference in the world because our time is short
19 May 2021
How I created the most successful agency of the 90’s - Rupert Howell, HHCL & Partners
01:54:19
Rupert Howell is one of the founders of the advertising agency HHCL & Partners famous for campaigns for Tango, The AA, Ronseal, First Direct and Go amongst to name just a few. They were awarded ‘Agency of the Decade’ by Campaign in the 1990’s and experienced phenomenal growth for over a decade before being sold to Chime.
We covered so much ground in this bumper 2 hour episode, so here's the list of what we touched upon:
How Rupert made HHCL the best agency of the 90’s
Ruperts New Business Mantra – Honesty. Respect. Trust.
Why saying ‘I don’t know’ and ‘we got it wrong’ is so important
How the agency’s sole focus is Advertising but the Clients sole focus is the business
Why new business should always be separate to the day to day account management
How Rupert became ‘the finest new business director of all time’
How to win a pitch even after you have lost it
Why the pitch process begins with the phone call and only ends when its announced in Campaign
The sole purpose of the pitch is to win and not to solve the clients business problem
Why HHCL had a strike rate of 65% for new business
What the company annual report can tell you for the pitch process
Why you should try and get your customer promoted
How Carling Black Label inspired the most successful Tango Advertising of all time
How Tango destroyed Fanta and forced Coke to withdraw it from the market
How a call from a Surgeon led to the Tango Slap commercial being withdraw from market
Why the ‘4th Emergency Service’ transformed The AA and how the bold idea was sold in
How spending time with an AA team out on a call led to the idea
The importance of winning your internal teams and why they matter as much as your customers
Interrogating the product until ‘it confesses its strength’
Why the harder you practice the luckier you get is just as true for an agency
The real hard yards of the start-up phase that meant not taking a day off in 3 years
How tabloids create controversy and how to respond to it
Why relationships are the secret to really succeeding in business
Turning down offers to sell the agency including a £1million bribe
Why HHCL accepted an offer from Chime with the support from Sir Martin Sorrell
Why so few agencies ever succeed after being acquired by a network
Why HHCL was never the same after Rupert left and why he would never go back
The importance of timing for Founders handing over to the next generation
Dealing with bullies, bribary and negotiating an exit from McCann with a boat & DB9 as consolation
Which celebrities are still speaking to Rupert after he left ITV
Why social media is driven by click bait and negative headlines
Why you should give up the news, except perhaps local news
Who killed Duo? How Duolingo built a brand on entertainment
00:53:06
Today, I’m joined by James Kuczynski, Creative Director at Duolingo, and Dan Salkey, Founding Partner at Small World, for a conversation on how to build truly entertaining brands.
Fresh off their SXSW panel titled "Entertain or Die", named after a report by Small World, we explore how Duolingo has built such a standout brand, particularly through the rise (and death...) of their iconic mascot, Duo.
In the first half of the episode, I chat with James about Duolingo’s brand success, why they decided to "kill off" their beloved mascot, and how giving creative autonomy to their team has been key to their growth. In the second half, I speak with Dan about the most entertaining brands in the world today—and the specific traits you can apply to make your own brand more entertaining.
00:00 - Start 00:47 - Part 1: James Kuczynski from Duolingo 01:22 - James’ background in marketing 03:23 - How James joined Duolingo 04:18 - What is Duolingo 06:34 - How Duolingo has used gamification to help people learn languages 09:47 - How is AI enhancing Duolingo? 11:20 - Is AI a threat to Duolingo? 12:13 - Why Duolingo created “Duo”, their mascot 15:47 - How the Duolingo owl evolved 17:56 - Duolingo’s April fools plans 20:00 - Why Duolingo killed off their mascot 23:57 - The results of Duo killing their mascot 25:08 - How partnerships have played a role in the success of Duolingo 28:02 - How Duo is bigger than A-list celebrities 29:26 - How Duolingo built such a huge social media following 32:08 - The importance of being in-house for growing Duolingo 33:17 - How Duolingo hires social media talent 34:34 - The thing that makes Duolingo stand out 36:32 - Part 2: Dan Salkey from Small World 37:15 - Why Small World created the Entertain or Die report 38:57 - How they identified the most entertaining brands on the planet 39:30 - What brands are the most entertaining? 40:41 - Why the most boring categories have most space to innovate 42:35 - The entertainment gap 44:07 - How can brands be more entertaining? 49:54 - Final advice on how brands can be more entertaining
03 May 2023
Mastering the client-agency relationship - Richard Warren, prev. Lloyds Banking Group & Lowe
00:53:19
Richard Warren has spent his career working in and growing agencies, but most recently has worked in house at one of the UK's largest banking group, Lloyds. In 2000 Richard founded DLKW as Director of Strategy, which grew to become the the UK’s largest independent agency, before merging with Lowe in 2010. As someone who has spent time on both sides, I wanted to catch up with Richard to find out how to make the most of the agency-client relationship.
24 Jul 2024
Olympics CMO on Olympic glory and a Paralympic legacy
01:30:50
Greg Nugent was the CMO for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, one of the biggest events ever to take place. The entire world was watching as Greg’s work came to life. Before working on the Olympics, Greg oversaw the move of the Eurostar to St Pancras, which included creating the world’s longest champagne bar.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:51 - How did Greg get into marketing 00:10:02 - Greg’s time at Eurostar 00:17:47 - The longest champage bar in the world 00:22:43 - Becoming the CMO of the London 2012 Olympics 00:29:49 - How the team was pivotal for putting on the Olympics 00:34:13 - The importance of the legacy of London 2012 00:37:53 - Why the Paralympics became so prevalent in 2012 00:45:38 - What happened after London 2012 00:50:37 - From Olympics to Rising Pheonix 01:01:05 - How to execute on big ideas - Magic and Logic 01:16:35 - The power of persistence 01:23:24 - Telling powerful stories about those with disability
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